Brazil coach Tite said he was happy to be in Group G after Friday’s World Cup draw in Doha as it would give his team more time to prepare.
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The World Cup will begin on November 21 with hosts Qatar taking on Ecuador.
Brazil’s first match will be three days later against Serbia, before further matches against Switzerland and Cameroon.
“Any amount of time you can spend with the players, training, is an advantage,” Tite said.
It is generally considered better to start the tournament earlier rather than later because it gives teams more time between matches as they progress through the competition.
While on paper the five-time former winner Brazil appears to be the clear favourite, Tite pointed out that his opponents had already qualified ahead of some football heavyweights.
“We are talking about the elimination of Italy and Portugal at the hands of Switzerland and Serbia” respectively in the European group stage where only the pool winners qualified automatically, Tait told Brazilian channel SportTV from Doha.
Portugal did manage to qualify for the World Cup after a play-off victory over North Macedonia, which had surprised Italy in the previous round.
“And we also have Cameroon which is very strong in Africa,” Tait said.
“I watched the Switzerland match, they played right after us during the qualifiers. It was against Italy, they were up 1-0 from the start and almost made it 2-0 but ended in a draw.
“They are world class, high level so we also have to play at a high level.”
Brazil, who went unbeaten through their qualifying campaign and set a new record for points in the singles South American group, played both Serbia and Switzerland in the previous tournament in Russia.
They beat Serbia 2–0 but drew 1–1 with the Swiss.
Brazil has not played a European side since beating the Czech Republic 3–1 in a friendly in March 2019.
But Tit isn’t worried.
“What I can assure you is that eight months before the start of the World Cup is a lot of time to prepare well.”
Serbia’s coach Dragan Stojkovic had no doubt which team to beat.
“When people talk about football, the first word is Brazil. I respect Brazil a lot, it’s always a favorite,” he said, “but I like to play against tough teams.”
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