Following their humiliating 7-1 defeat to Germany in the semi-final of last year’s World Cup, the Selecao have won ten successive friendly matches, casting off some of the gloom surrounding the team.
City’s sole representative in the Brazil squad Fernandinho looks likely to start the tournament as first-choice in his position after he played all 180 minutes of their 2-0 and 1-0 warm-up friendly wins over Mexico and Honduras.
Brazil get their Copa America challenge under way on Sunday night with a clash against Peru in Temuco.
Fernandinho is expected to partner Elias in the heart of the Brazil midfield after Luiz Gustavo was ruled out of the competition with injury earlier in the month.
The pair played together for the first time in the friendly against Mexico last week and Elias told journalists that he felt that it was a midfield combination Brazil can rely upon.
“The whole team played well,” said the Corinthians midfielder.
“This is the first time that I started with Fernandinho and I think we played well.”
Peru failed to build on their third-place finish at the last Copa America in 2011, falling way short of the required points tally required to qualify for the World Cup.
They are thought to be viewing this competition as a training exercise for the Russia 2018 qualifiers which get started after this tournament finishes.
However, they do have a number of players who could make things awkward for Fernandinho and company if they’re not at the races.
Bayern Munich’s Claudio Pizarro is the star man but they have eight other players plying their trade in top European leagues in their 23.
In the night’s other game from Group C, Colombia meet Venezuela.
Kick-off between Brazil and Colombia is on Sunday night at 22:30 (BST) and you will be able to read a report on how Fernandinho gets on here on mcfc.co.uk shortly after full-time.
