How Tite changed Brazil’s style

Didier Deschamps proclaimed France’s second World Cup triumph was “just as beautiful” as their first after leading them to glory again 20 years on, but Croatia defender Dejan Lovren said that Deschamps' team "did not play football."

"I'm disappointed because we lost the game, we played much, much better football than them, but on the other hand I'm proud of this team and what we have achieved," Lovren said.

"We played beautiful football again. France were one of the favourites to win the World Cup and they did it. I think we were better. They did it another way. They didn't play football, they waited for their chances and they scored. They had their own tactic and you need to respect that. They played the tournament like that, every game, but when you look at all the countries behind us, we're second.” he added.

"There's nothing to talk about now. It's difficult to describe. Maybe after a week or two, a couple of months... right now, it's difficult. Some moments I feel sad, some moments I'm happy. Overall, I'm proud."

Ivan Perisic conceded the first-half penalty after referee Nestor Pitana penalised him for handball following a VAR review.

"I was sure he would not give the pen," said the Liverpool centre-back. "From my point of view, he [Perisic] could not react.

"It was a critical moment, we came back at 1-1, and then this penalty and then 3-1, 4-1, but even then we didn't stop playing football, we still believed, we gave everything, and this is why people are proud now in Croatia."

Didier Deschamps' side had claimed a 1-0 over Belgium in the semifinals with a defensive masterclass which left Belgium star Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois deeply unimpressed with what he felt were overly cagey tactics by France in the semi-final, and now Lovren also felt the frustration of coming up against Deschamps's style. Not always the most entertaining, however, in the end, French squad just had too much talent at its disposal to get the job done.

More than two decades since their last World Cup triumph and without a local consensus pick, Brazil are considering breaking an unwritten taboo: hiring a foreign coach.

After six years in the job, Tite left the Brazil post last month following the Selecao's World Cup quarterfinal exit against Croatia.

Despite knowing for some time before the Qatar showpiece that Tite was leaving, Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) president Ednaldo Rodrigues still has not found a replacement.

Now he is widening his search.

"We have no nationality prejudices," he said on January 17.

"We want it to be a respected coach who can bring a level of play worthy of the athletes. We want to do what Brazil have always tried to do: to be very attacking."

Apart from England, who hired Swede Sven Goran Eriksen and Fabio Capello of Italy in the 2000s, almost no other major footballing nation has had a foreign coach in decades.

Brazil's World Cup drought -- stretching back to their dazzling triumph in 2002 with a three-pronged attack comprised of Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo -- has forced the record five-time world champions to cast the net farther afield.

There are potential Brazilian candidates, but none have garnered widespread support.

"We have good quality, but before we used to produce more coaches than now," Luiz Felipe Scolari, the 2002 title-winning coach, said recently.

"The new generation ... haven't won enough trophies."

Fans unconvinced of 'gringo' merits

Brazilian press have been proposing numerous possible candidates.

Spaniards Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique, Italy's Carlo Ancelotti, Frenchman Zinedine Zidane, Jose Mourinho of Portugal and even Argentines Marcelo Gallardo and Mauricio Pochettino.

Manchester City's Guardiola and Ancelotti of Real Madrid have both ruled themselves out, although the Spaniard did say a couple of years ago that he fancied leading a national team when he leaves the English champions.

"Since the end of last year I think I've heard 26 names. We will go after some of them," said Rodrigues, who hopes to have the new man in place by March.

But it is not easy hiring a world class coach when top European clubs can pay such inflated wages and offer the chance to compete for the Champions League or national titles.

It is also not easy to convince the Brazilian fans to accept a "gringo" in charge of the Selecao.

A poll in December found 48 percent were against the idea, with only 41 percent in favor.

The rejection rate was at least lower than in previous such polls.

"In Brazil there is one idea: we have the best football in the world, so we don't need a foreign coach telling us how to play," historian and editor of sports website Ludopedio, Victor Figols, told AFP.

"Us, who know how to develop great players, who in part created dribbling, the way to play the beautiful game."

Local candidates
Brazil did once have foreign coaches, although their reigns were fleeting.

Uruguayan Ramon Platero held the position in 1925, Portugal's Jorge Gomes de Lima coached the Selecao alongside Brazilian Flavio Costa in 1944, and Argentina's Filpo Nunez had a brief stint in 1965.

But foreigners were discarded once Brazil, using homegrown coaches, consolidated itself as a world football power.

Quite the opposite occurred as coaches such as Scolari, Vanderlei Luxemburgo, Carlos Alberto Parreira, Ricardo Gomes and Zico took charge of other national teams.

"An image was built throughout history that since we develop great players, we also develop great coaches, but it's not true," said Figols.

"If we look at the FIFA rankings, Brazilian coaches are not even in the top 10."

There are some local candidates who are popular among the press, such as Dorival Junior, who won the 2022 Copa Libertadores with Flamengo, or Fernando Diniz of Fluminense, Gremio's Renato Portaluppi and Mano Menezes of Internacional.

But none of them have a comparable resume to Tite's before he took over the Brazil role.

With Corinthians, Tite won the Copa Libertadores, two Brazilian titles and the Club World Cup in a five-year period.

"We need to improve the level of those that live here regardless of whether we hire a foreigner or a Brazilian," Paulo Vinicius Coelho, author of the "Brazilian Football School" book, wrote in the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.

"Guardiola won't come. But that doesn't prevent Brazil from ... developing our own Pep Guardiola within a few years, as we once developed Zagallo and Tele Santana," he added.

Brazil manager Tite says he is considering changes for Tuesday's game against Australia after blasting his side's poor finishing in the loss to Argentina in Melbourne.

The world's number one ranked team wasted several scoring opportunities as Argentina hung on for a 1-0 win in their Superclasico at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday.

A goal from Sevilla defender Gabriel Mercado just before half-time proved the eventual winner as Argentina gained a morale-boosting victory under new manager Jorge Sampaoli.

The two-time world champions and second ranked team are struggling outside the automatic qualifying positions in fifth spot in the South American group with four games left while Brazil have already qualified for the World Cup finals in Russia next year.

Tite looked on as Manchester City striker Gabriel Jesus hit the woodwork with the goal at his mercy before Chelsea's Willian fired into the opposite post with the rebound midway through the second half.

"They (Argentina) were not that superior, but we needed more precision in our finishing and to take our opportunities," Tite told reporters after the match through an interpreter.

"We have a lot of things to assess and I might need to make some changes so that we play with better coherence and in a more organized way.

"Even in the match against Uruguay (4-1 win in Montevideo in March) we had to make some adjustments, but in the end what we really have to find is some goals."

The Brazilians are staying on in Australia to play a second match in Melbourne on Tuesday against the Socceroos, who are tuning up for this month's Confederations Cup in Russia.

Tite said he was looking for his side to be more clinical against the Australians, who downed Saudi Arabia 3-2 in a crucial home qualifier for next year's World Cup in Russia.

'Jesus is fine'

"The team played well, but we had some trouble marking their (Argentina's) top players in the first half, and they were playing faster than us," he said.

"In the second half, we had more possession and played better.

"We had the effort and the formation we wanted but we need more of the players performing at a higher level.

"We didn't deserve the victory. We need to be more aggressive and we have to neutralise the other team so that we can get the game more on our terms."

Tite said Brazil had to make better use of their "technical power."

"We have to be better prepared. We have to look at the game as a whole: the way we want to play, the technical power that we have, and we have to look at the competition," he said.

"We want to get to the level that we can dominate the game. That way we can get the performance and the results we want."

Tite said he would assess the condition of Jesus, who was carried off after he collected an elbow in the face in an aerial challenge with Manchester City team-mate Nicolas Otamendi in the final minutes and taken to hospital for observation.

But Brazil's team coordinator Edu Gaspar said Jesus had been given the all clear.

"Jesus is fine," Edu told reporters. "I spoke to the doctor, he said he is OK. He did the exam to see if it (his jaw) is broken or not but nothing has happened."

Argentina will stop off and play in Singapore on Tuesday, but will be without Lionel Messi and defender Otamendi, who will skip the game to prepare for their weddings later this month.

Barcelona superstar Messi will marry his girlfriend Antonella Roccuzzo on June 30, with Otamendi's wedding scheduled for June 16.

Croatia face France in Moscow on Sunday attempting to win their first World Cup while Didier Deschamps' side are aiming to land their second title two decades on from their triumph on home soil.

France, who are clear favourites to triumph in the Luzhniki Stadium, will also be spurred on by the bitter disappointment of losing the Euro 2016 final to Portugal in Paris.

It is a final few people anticipated when football's global showpiece kicked off four weeks ago.

Croatia have brought joy to their Balkan nation of just four million people by defying the odds to progress to the final while reigning champions Germany, then Argentina and Brazil all fell by the wayside in Russia.

They have been inspired by mercurial midfielder Luka Modric while coach Zlatko Dalic, who only took over last year with the squad in chaos, has coaxed remarkable performances from his team.

Deschamps would become only the third man to win the World Cup as both a player and a manager -- he was captain when France lifted the World Cup in 1998.

His France side, spearheaded by 19-year-old forward Kylian Mbappe and the more seasoned Antoine Griezmann, are the favourites.

Paul Pogba has finally become a leader in midfield for France and N'Golo Kante has excelled in doing the tireless work that allows his teammates to shine, while Samuel Umtiti and Raphael Varane are the nucleus of a solid defence.

Les Bleus laboured through their group, beating Australia and Peru by the odd goal and drawing with Denmark in the only goalless game of the tournament.

Then they hit form, sweeping aside Argentina in a match which announced to the world that Mbappe is set to be an international superstar as he scored twice and outshone Lionel Messi.

But apart from that 4-3 win, France have played like a Deschamps side, with the emphasis on defence.

Newspapers and TV stations hailed France's World Cup victory on Monday, while clean-up crews worked against the clock to tidy up after a crazy night's partying in Paris ahead of a victory parade down the Champs Elysees.

"Our Day of Glory Is Here" declared Le Figaro, referencing a rousing line from the Marseillaise anthem.

"History Made" announced sports daily L'Equipe, while business journal Les Echos went for the more straightforward "Champions of the World". Photos of superstars Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Paul Pogba, as well as shots of the team holding aloft and kissing the trophy, dominated coverage.

The victory has created a sense of national unity, with commentators playing up the fact the squad, the second-youngest in the competition, includes many with central and north African heritage, even if all but two were born in France.

When the country won its first World Cup in 1998, when Zinedine Zidane was its talisman and playmaker, the team was referred to as "Black-Blanc-Beur" (Black-White-Arab), a positive reference to its diverse ethnic make-up.

Gallery: France fans celebrate

But some were keen to push that phrase to one side, seeing in it a sense of separateness, even if it was meant positively.

"We're not in 1998," said Mounir Mahjoubi, the secretary of state for digital affairs, whose parents emigrated from Morocco.

"We're not still celebrating 'Black-Blanc-Beur', we're celebrating brotherhood," he said of the current team.

Videos shot by the players in the frenetic changing room after the win showed them singing, dancing and raising a toast together, while teaching President Emmanuel Macron, who could barely contain his excitement, how to do a "dab".

METRO STATIONS

For Macron, who became president last year at the age of 39, taking his political movement to victory against the odds, the football team's success is likely to have positive repercussions after a slump in the polls.

The Paris metro system got into the celebratory mood, announcing the names of a number of stations were being briefly changed to honour the players and coach, Didier Deschamps.

So Notre-Dame des Champs station was relabelled "Notre Didier Deschamps", and Victor Hugo was switched to "Victor Hugo Lloris" after the captain and goalkeeper.

The 2 km Champs Elysees, the Arc de Triomphe and the vast Place de la Concorde turned into a heaving sea of people on Sunday night, waving red, white and blue flags, setting off firecrackers and blowing horns until early morning.

On Monday, the after-effects were still visible. A number of smashed windows, an overturned car and graffiti scrawled here and there, including the phrase "Liberte, Egalite, Mbappe", a reference to the national motto "Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite".

On Twitter, Brazil legend Pele paid tribute to the exploits of Mbappe, France's standout, 19-year-old superstar, saying that if the teenager kept equalling his goal-scoring records, Pele might have to strap his boots back on.

Mbappe replied to the tweet in English saying "The king will always remain the king", quickly gaining 15,000 retweets.

The team is scheduled to arrive back in France at 1400 GMT, with crowds set to gather at Charles de Gaulle airport to receive them. A parade down the Champs Elysees is scheduled for 1530 GMT, and there will be a formal victory reception with Macron at the Elysee Palace at 1630 GMT.

And it's not just in Paris that the nation has been taken over with football fever. From Nice and Marseille in the south to Lille in the north, Nantes in the west and scores of towns and cities in between, TV stations were full of images of red, white and blue clad fans singing in streets and squares.