Brazilians eye scoreline

Ronaldo, fresh from an impressive return to the World Cup in Brazil’s win over Turkey, has the perfect opportunity to continue his goal...

Ronaldo, fresh from an impressive return to the World Cup in Brazil’s win over Turkey, has the perfect opportunity to continue his goal-scoring revival against depleted China on Saturday.

China, disappointed after losing their debut game in the finals 2-0 to Costa Rica, are likely to face the four times champions without two of their top players, Fan Zhiyi and Sun Jihai. Both picked up injuries in Tuesday’s game.

PROBABLE TEAMS

Brazil: Marcos; Lucio, Anderson Polga, Roque Junior; Cafu, Gilberto Silva, Roberto Carlos, Juninho, Rivaldo; Ronaldo, Ronaldinho

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China: Jiang Jin; Zhang Enhua, Li Weifeng, Wu Chengying, Xu Yunlong; Li Xiaopeng, Qi Hong, Li Tie, Ma Mingyu; Hao Haidong, Yang Chen

Brazil, who came from behind to beat Turkey 2-1 thanks to a late and controversial penalty, can make sure of a second round place if they beat China and Turkey fail to defeat Costa Rica.

The high point of Brazil’s win over Turkey was the performance of Ronaldo, who is determined to wipe out memories of his injury nightmare and the controversy over his illness-affected appearance in the 1998 final against France.

Against Turkey, the twice World Player of the Year scored Brazil’s equaliser and was their most dangerous player until he was substituted in the 73rd minute. “I was happy with my performance against Turkey but I can improve a lot, I know I’m on the right path,” he said. “It’s an easy game in theory, but we have to transform itinto an easy game. We have to play well to win the game without difficulties.”(Reuters)