Luiz Felipe Scolari and his Brazil side will look to get a flying start to the World Cup as they face Croatia in Sao Paulo on Thursday. The home team suffered a scare in training on Tuesday as Barcelona star Neymar seemed to be injured but they were relieved to find out that it was just a slight twist to his left ankle. Brazil will most likely field the same eleven that they used in four of the five matches last summer when they claimed Confederations Cup glory. Neymar will play behind Fred in attack, joining Oscar and Hulk in attacking midfield positions.

Croatia head coach Niko Kovac won’t be able to field Danijel Pranjic after he picked up an ankle injury in the final warm-up fixture against Australia in Salvador last weekend. Left back Ivan Strinic is also on the sidelines, but he remains in the squad with an outside chance of featuring in the tournament. Genoa’s Sime Vrsaljko could take Pranjic’s place, although Vedran Corluka could move to the left flank with Dynamo Kiev’s Domagoj Vida starting in the middle of the defence.

Nikica Jelavic is likely to lead the line in attack for Croatia as Bayern striker Mario Mandzukic is suspended for the opening fixture following his sending off in the World Cup qualifying playoff against Iceland in November. Ivan Rakitic and Luka Modric will most likely feature in midfield, with Eduardo, Mateo Kovacic and Ivan Perisic all fit to play as well. An interesting fact for punters: the host nation has never lost their opening World Cup game, with the 20 previous hosts winning 14 and drawing six of their openers.

Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:

Brazil win – 1/3
Draw – 4/1
Croatia win – 12/1