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Wednesday brought an update on Bruno Guimaraes.
Dorival Junior announcing (see below) that the Newcastle United star would be one of the players dropping to the bench, as he tried something different against Chile on Thursday night.
The Brazil boss under extreme pressure. His first game in charge was a 1-0 win at Wembley in March 2024 but since then only three victories in the next nine games.
No panic yet as six automatically qualify, but Brazil are only fifth in their 2026 South American World Cup qualifying group, so they need to start winning games. Especially as their next two games against Chile and Peru are against the two two teams filling the bottom two places in that group.
Bruno Guimaraes will understandably be gutted, having become a regular starter for his country, in the starting eleven nine of the last ten matches.
Now Bruno’s dad has stepped in and had his say…
Dick Guimaraes via his personal Twitter/X account – 10 October 2024:
“Bruno, every opportunity is a chance to show your worth, whether on the bench or on the field.
“Stay focused and prepared, because your time always comes.
“I trust in you!!!”
As we all know, Bruno Guimaraes and his parents have a great relationship, his mam and dad regularly spotted at Newcastle United, his dad especially a bit of a cult hero now. Dick Guimaraes loving the relationship between son Bruno and the NUFC fanbase.
Great words by his dad to give Bruno Guimaraes a bit of a lift in a difficult moment.
Lovely to see.
Bruno, cada oportunidade é uma chance de mostrar seu valor, seja no banco ou no campo. Mantenha-se focado e preparado, porque sua hora sempre chega. Confio em você !!! pic.twitter.com/zRwWQ8rV19
— Dick Moura (@dick_moura) October 10, 2024
The Mag report – 10 October 2024:
Bruno Guimaraes and Brazil lost to Miguel Almiron and Paraguay back in September.
That most recent World Cup group qualifier saw the Newcastle United star and one of his Brazilian teammates subbed off at half-time.
Brazil boss Dorival Junior trying something different in that second-half but no improvement, as Paraguay won 1-0.
Living on borrowed time already, despite just ten games in the job, Dorival Junior now going to try something different from the very start, when Brazil play Chile on Thursday.
The then new Brazil boss started off with a 1-0 win against England at Wembley in March, however, the next nine games have brought only three wins.
Dorival Junior now announcing he will make changes for this game against Chile, including replacing Bruno Guimaraes.
The Brazil team v Chile:
Ederson, Danilo, Marquinhos, Gabriel Magalhães, Abner; André, Lucas Paquetá, Savinho, Raphinha, Rodrygo, Igor Jesus
Dorival Junior explaining at his press conference the reasons for dropping Bruno Guimaraes, as quoted by Globo Esporte:
“Bruno Guimaraes is a very important player.
“Leaving him out of the team [for this match] doesn’t mean he loses his importance, he knows that.
“It’s just an attempt to find a different midfield… as is the case with Paqueta.
“He has already performed this role in other moments here in the national team, maybe we can repeat all of this.
“Especially because we will have a player like Raphinha in the middle who will support the midfield.
“With this, we will strengthen our ability to recover the ball and reach the opponent’s goal a little more.
“This does not mean that, in the match, Bruno cannot maintain his importance in the group.
“He was one of our best players, if not the best, in the Copa America.”
A big irony for Bruno Guimaraes, that it will his best mate Lucas Paqueta filling his role in midfield tomorrow.
From a Newcastle United perspective AND arguably a Bruno Guimaraes perspective overall, getting a bit of a break from starting pretty much every single game for club and country might not be the worst thing to happen.
I am guessing almost for sure Bruno will appear as a sub at some point anyway, plus Dorival Junior appears to make clear the Newcastle United midfielder is still very much in his plans.
However, when you are under so much pressure as Dorival Junior is, then changes were inevitable I guess.
The South American World Cup qualifying group currently looks like this, the top six automatically qualify for the 2026 finals (to be held in Mexico, Canada and USA) and the seventh in the table goes into a play-off to try and reach the finals:
Each country with still 10 group games to play and no serious threat of Brazil not qualifying you would think, but at some point, they have to put the wins on the board.
After this away game against Chile, Brazil have a home match on Tuesday against Peru, the only team below Chile in the table at this moment in time.

 
