Gary Neville has admitted he has been left in awe by Brazil captain Thiago Silva after the centre-back helped A Selecao reach the last 16 of the World Cup.
The Chelsea star has played all 90 minutes of both of Brazil 's games at the tournament so far, both of which they won. Those two victories have sealed their place in the knockout stages in Qatar as they look to bring the World Cup back to Brazil for the first time in 20 years.
Silva has been at the heart of their success, making six clearances, two recoveries and winning all of his aerial duels as they beat Switzerland on Monday. It was a performance that left Neville in awe of the 38-year-old.
"We see Pep Guardiola in the Premier League changing the face of football in the last ten years in that we demand 60%, 70% possession from the best teams," Neville told ITV after the game.
"Every coach wants that. We demand incredible football players technically gifted players on the pitch but they also have to keep clean sheets. They’re also brilliant defensively. Not just that, they push up the pitch unbelievably.
"I don’t know how Thiago Silva at his age is still pushing up that pitch. I think back at my career, to get in front of your forward all the time, to try and win it, is one of the hardest that you try and do – he’s still doing that late into his thirties – it’s unbelievable."
HAVE YOUR SAY! How far will Brazil go at this year's World Cup? Comment below.
With Silva leading the line, Brazil became just the second team since 1966 to not face a single shot on target in their first two World Cup games in a single edition of the tournament, after France in 1998.
And Neville insisted that finding the right defensive balance will be crucial to Brazil's success this winter. That is a balance he believes coach Tite found towards the end of their clash against Switzerland, with their winner coming seven minutes from time.
"The balance for a coach is always to try and find the right attacking and defending balance but you wanna try and get as many attacking players on the pitch as possible, your most talented players on the pitch without losing that sort of defensive shape," he added.
"At the end, the coach was pushing that sort of balance towards the fact that he wanted those attacking players on the pitch, and all these coaches in these tournaments, some of them like Brazil, have six, seven, eight unbelievable players.
"You can't get them all on the pitch, but how many can you get on the pitch? He didn't have enough of them on the pitch at the start of the game, towards the end it looked the right type of balance for the quality that they have."
Brazil take on Cameroon in their final match of Group G on Friday, with a point confirming their place at the top of that table. If they get that point, they will then face one of Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay or South Korea in the last 16.
