Neymar will win his 100th Brazil cap for when five-time World Cup winners face Senegal

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  • Neymar will win his 100th cap for Brazil when the five-time World Cup winners face Senegal for the first time.

    Head coach Tite has named a strong side for the friendly in Singapore, with Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson and team-mate Gabriel Jesus in the starting XI alongside Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino.

    Neymar has scored 61 goals in his 99 appearances for the national side to date, just one behind Ronaldo and 16 adrift of record holder Pele.

    Both sides come into the fixture in good form with Brazil winning the Copa America this summer and Senegal reaching the final of the Africa Cup of Nations, where they lost to Algeria.

    Tite is expecting a tough game and is particularly looking forward to seeing Sadio Mane in action after voting the Liverpool forward the third best player in the world in the recent FIFA The Best awards.

    “Mane is a very mobile player, agile, has skill, has very strong personal ability,” Tite told a pre-match press conference.

    “That’s why I chose him as the third (best) in the world. Earlier I mentioned (Mo) Salah, but in this campaign last season he was more effective. My vote was not who is better, but who made the best campaign.”

    Tite has been employing a 4-4-2 system with Neymar and Firmino up front and Jesus and Philippe Coutinho on either side of midfield, but could experiment before World Cup qualifying begins in March.

    Assistant coach Cleber Xavier told BBC Sport: “These two friendlies and the two November friendlies will allow us to test new players and to adjust and tweak some tactical details in attack and defence.

    “We did this in the preparation for the Copa America. We succeeded in the objective of winning and did so unbeaten. Every time the qualifiers become more difficult. It is a very hard competition. Last time we qualified with four rounds to go, which was a great achievement.”

    Brazil also face Nigeria in a friendly in Singapore on Sunday.

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