Santos World Club Cup semi-final expected line-up

Can Neymar fire Santos to the final of the FIFA Club World Cup? (Getty)

Neymar and Santos take on Kashiwa Reysol in the semi final of the FIFA Club World Cup on Wednesday. For the last several months, most people in South America have been talking about a possible final between Barcelona and Santos. I think its fair to say that all football purists want to see this game. Messi vs. Neymar; Europe vs. South America; two attacking teams that like to play good football – there are lots of reasons to get excited about this possible clash.

Of course, both teams need to win their respective semi finals first and neither Santos or Barça should underestimate their opponents. We all saw what happened to Internacional last year. Santos’ opponents Kashiwa Reysol are the Japanese Champions and have already beaten Auckland City and Monterrey in this tournament. Monterrey are no slouches themselves having recently won titles in Mexico and having won the 2010/11 CONCACAF Cup. Barcelona take on the Asian Champions Al-Sadd from Qatar on Thursday.

Santos’ expected line up for the semi is: Rafael, Danilo, Edu Dracena, Bruno Rodrigo, Durval, Arouca, Henrique, Elano, Ganso, Borges, Neymar.

Not long now…. the match kicks off at 19:30 local time in Japan. According to my calculations that’s 10.30am UK and 08:30am in Brazil. So have it while you eat your breakfast or call in sick at work.

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