Brazil will play at full throttle, warns Gilberto

BRAZIL intend to go at full throttle when they take on Ireland side tonight in their final friendly before the start of this summer’s World Cup.

The five-time world champions have sent over a star-studded squad with the likes of Robinho, Kaka and Adriano set to be unleashed by coach Dunga against the Irish.

Many players in the Brazil squad find themselves at a crunch stage in the club calendar, with the Champions League back up and running and domestic championships coming to a head.

But Gilberto Silva, the former Arsenal midfielder, insists there will be no let-up when his side come up against an Ireland team shorn of many of some key players, including John O’Shea and Richard Dunne.

“This is important because it’s the last friendly for us. This counts,” said Gilberto.

“We are playing together for the last time before the World Cup. The coach has been watching everyone at their clubs and it’s important that everyone keeps their shape and fitness.

“Our preparations have been very good up until now. We just have to try to keep going and doing a good job, doing the right things. This will be a good test. We want to keep our confidence very high.”

Gilberto refuses to believe Ireland will be pushovers tonight, even though Trapattoni has been deprived of some of his on-field leaders and arguably has one eye on the future, with a number of uncapped players in the squad.

“The players who come in will want to show they have the quality to be in the starting XI,” Gilberto said.

“It’s always been like this in football – the players who come in will do their best.”

The Irish will be playing their first match since suffering that heartbreaking elimination from the World Cup last November. Many of the scars will still not have healed in the Ireland camp and Gilberto subscribes to the universal belief that Trapattoni and his men were hard done by at the Stade de France.

“I feel sorry for the way Ireland didn’t qualify and the way they were knocked,” Gilberto said.

“But sometimes these things happen.”

Brazil breezed through South American qualifying, losing just two of their 18 matches.

But that was qualifying – when the real thing comes around in a little more than three months’ time, the pressure will be as intense as it gets.

“Every day, we feel very anxious because we are coming closer and closer to the World Cup,” Gilberto admitted.