Brazil v Switzerland: Are the Swiss poised for another World Cup upset?

In 2010 they beat eventual World Cup winners Spain and Switzerland will again have to take down a tournament favourite when they face off against Brazil at the Rostov Arena. 

Switzerland stunned the world eight years ago when they snuck past the Spaniards 1-0 and the odds are again against them in Russia.

The Swiss however have a knack of starting World Cups off strongly, having won their past two opening games and stand undefeated across their past four.

They strolled to Russia too, losing just one of their ten regular qualifying matches and have backed that up with strong showings in their final friendlies leading up to the World Cup.

A 6-0 smashing off Panama in late March was followed up by a recent 1-1 draw with Spain and clinical 2-0 win over Japan.

Xherdan Shaqiri will no doubt be key to a Swiss upset with the player directly involved in five of his country's last six goals at major tournaments and also the last player to score a hat-trick at the World Cup.

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Brazil however loom as a giant nearly too big to tackle for Switzerland with the side looking nearly unstoppable in the lead up to Russia.

Known for their trademark attack, the Brazilians have now bulked up in defence having not conceded in their four consecutive wins leading up to the World Cup.

Under new coach Tite, Brazil didn't lose a single game in qualifying and like the Swiss like to start their World Cup campaigns strongly having won 16 of their past 18 opening matches.

PSG star Neymar is the man to watch for Brazil and was involved in more goals in CONMEBOL qualifiers than any other player as he hit the back of the net six times and provided eight assists.

Brazil and Switzerland have met once before in a World Cup, with the match in 1950 ending 2-2 on Brazilian soil.

Switzerland are genuine dark horses heading to Russia, despite being ranked sixth in the world, and will truly announce themselves as contenders should they bump off Brazil like they did Spain eight years. 

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