Willian defends Jesus amid calls for abandoning Brazilian striker for Firmino

Willian jumped to the defense of Gabriel Jesus in the middle from criticism of the lack of goals from the Manchester City striker to Brazil at the World Cup.

Tite, the Brazilian coach, is under pressure to drop Jesus and launch Liverpool striker Roberto Firmino in the quarter-final of Selecao against Belgium in Kazan tomorrow night (7.0).

But Willian, avoiding questions In the midst of rumors that Chelsea was rejecting an offer of 50 million pounds (57 million euros) from Barcelona for the attacker, he was giving support to Jesus [19659012] who has not yet scored in Russia and has seen Firmino leave the bench. Brazil's second goal in the 2-0 win over Mexico, 2-0.

"He has the trust of everyone here," Willian said of Jesus.

"I hear people criticize him for not scoring but the work that he does in scoring and recovering the ball is brilliant We trust him to continue with us Gabriel Jesus and Roberto Firmino are all as important. "

Willian's teammates in Brazil Paulinho and Philippe Coutinho are in Barcelona but the Chelsea striker he was not thinking about his future at his time. "

Rumors

" Paulinho and Coutinho are great players and friends. I've heard rumors linking me to a movement but this is not the time to talk about it. From the Belgian point of view, the quarter-finals of tomorrow's World Cup against Brazil in Kazan are a decisive game for their talented generation of players, but do not call them "golden", defender Vincent Kompany said yesterday.

"The term" generation of gold "is obviously one that gamers have not invented and this is not something we pay too much importance to," he said: game against Brazil is setting for our generation is for sure, however.This is not as if we had failed until now, but there is a higher level that we have to to achieve, which can be done by a game like the one we play against Brazil.

"So, it's a definition game but it's not just for us, it's not just about us. is also a decisive game for Brazil: the two teams deserve to see each other a little further, in this tournament and not in the quarterfinals.

"He was in Belgian culture, and I think everyone would agree with me, we would feel defeated even before a match like this but all the players on our team, who play in clubs all over the world, believe we can beat Brazil

"Whether it's realistic I do not know, Brazil is an amazing team but there is not a day when I go to bed thinking about & And if you lose "

Irish Independent