FRANCE 98 – General Media News Template

Former England great Sir Bobby Charlton tipped Scotland to pull off the first major upset of the World Cup by beating Brazil in the opening match on Wednesday. Charlton, who was in England’s 1966 World Cup-winning side, said that Brazil were under a lot of pressure to perform and could crumble. “Brazil are favourites – they play together so often that they are almost like a club side,” said Charlton on Tuesday. “But there is a lot of expectation that they will do well and they will be under pressure in the first game. The Scots are a disciplined team with a lot of skilful players. Brazil need to perform well and the Scots could capitalise on that. The Scots have it in them to score goals and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that they will win.” 

Charlton added that if Brazil were knocked out there were at least nine countries that could replace them as world champions. “England, Spain, Germany, France, Holland, Italy, Yugoslavia, Croatia and Argentina are amongst the teams who could lift the title,” he said. “There may be a European team more organised than Brazil. There are many teams hoping that Brazil will go out of the competition.” Charlton added that England would not miss the influence of midfielder Paul Gascoigne, whose exclusion from the squad split the nation. “It is no problem for England that Gascoigne is not here,” he said. “They have a good enough team to do well.”