{"id":1786,"date":"2026-06-18T17:30:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T09:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/?p=1786"},"modified":"2026-06-18T17:30:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T09:30:41","slug":"danilo-backs-brazil-to-get-over-world-cup-fright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/18\/danilo-backs-brazil-to-get-over-world-cup-fright\/","title":{"rendered":"Danilo backs Brazil to get over World Cup ‘fright’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Danilo admitted on Wednesday that Brazil’s lacklustre start to the World Cup was “frightening”, but said he was confident the team would improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The five-time world champions play Haiti on Friday in their second game after kicking off their Group C campaign with a 1-1 draw against Morocco last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It was frightening, because there was an expectation that we would produce a big performance,” said the 34-year-old Flamengo defender. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When things don’t work out, it’s not easy to digest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We need to find balance. We were unbalanced both tactically and mentally,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danilo acknowledged that Brazil are currently a step behind favourites such as defending champions Argentina and France, but stressed they remain among the leading contenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We have to be clear: we don’t yet have the maturity that France or Argentina have today as a team,” he said. “That doesn’t mean we can’t perform well, win matches and go far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If we can add one more star to the shirt, that would be wonderful.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite Brazil’s clear superiority on paper, Danilo said the team respected Haiti, pointing to surprise results at the tournament such as Cape Verde’s 0-0 draw with Spain in Group H.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Everyone saw how Cape Verde defended against Spain,” he said. “Talking about thrashing Haiti would be crazy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danilo also said he hoped injured forward Neymar would be fit to return soon from a calf injury that has kept him out of action since mid-May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain star received a playful guard of honour from his team-mates Wednesday as he trained with them for the first time at this World Cup. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I often talk with players about opponents… If you have a player like Neymar up against you, there’s more pressure and you’re always asking for help,” he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Just by being on the pitch, he can disrupt everything the opponent has prepared.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Danilo admitted on Wednesday that Brazil’s lacklustre start to the World Cup was “frightening”, but said he was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1786"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1788,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786\/revisions\/1788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}