• Football

Gerrard as good as Brazil's best

ESPN staff
April 5, 2014
Steven Gerrard is admired by the Brazilian players © PA Photos
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Former Brazil manager Carlos Alberto Parreira has hailed Steven Gerrard as a "wonderful player" who would be good enough to play for this year's World Cup hosts.

Parreira, who took the country to 1994 World Cup glory, is a huge fan of Gerrard and says the player who will lead England out at this summer's finals is admired by his Brazilian peers.

"I like Gerrard very much; he is, for me, a wonderful player," Parreira, who is now a technical director with Brazil, said. "He would play in the Brazilian team, yes. The Brazilian players love him and respect him."

Parreira claims England are "one of the favourites" to win the World Cup providing they can emerge from a group which contains Luis Suarez's Uruguay and Italy.

"The group is very tough. Nobody can say right now who is going to survive in this group," he said. "If they [England] survive they can go very far in the competition. We played them twice, we lost one and we drew the second one.

"The team is very good. I rate them as one of the favourites together with Spain, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Germany."

Manager Roy Hodgson has also talked up England's chances and has pledged to approach the tournament boldly.

"We will be brave, we will believe in ourselves and we will risk defeat," Hodgson told talkSPORT. "We have to allow our players to express themselves in the same way they do in the top Premier League teams.

"We won't try and sneak our way through the games because I think with the type of players we have that wouldn't suit us."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
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