With La Albiceleste having secured their spot in the last four with a penalty shoot-out victory over Colombia, the Selecao head into their last eight encounter with Paraguay knowing what awaits should they reach the next round.
If Ferna needed any extra motivation to triumph this evening, the prospect of locking horns with fellow Blues Sergio Aguero, Martin Demichelis and Pablo Zabaleta should provide it.
The midfielder, who has been ever-present in his side’s campaign so far, is likely to make the starting XI once again as Dunga looks set to make just one change to the side that defeated Venezuela last time out, with David Luiz replacing Elias.
Brazil will be hoping to avoid a repeat of the 2011 last eight tie, which also pitted them against La Albirroja, who emerged victorious on penalties.
However, Dunga’s side will take heart from the fact they have lost just one of their last eleven Copa America games against the Paraguayans and did conquer them at the same stage of the 1997 competition.
In this year’s tournament, although the Selecao topped their group, they are yet to shine and suffered a major setback when Neymar was banned for four games for a headbutt.
Regardless, they reached this stage with a pair of 2-1 wins either side of a 1-0 defeat to Colombia and will hope to continue to the semi-finals for the first time since 2007, when they went on to win the tournament
Tonight’s game kicks-off at 22:30 BST. We’ll have updates on Twitter and a report after full-time.
