Belo Horizonte: Making the final of the Confederations Cup following a tense 2-1 win over Uruguay on Wednesday signalled to Brazil's fickle fans that their team could go on and succeed at next year's World Cup on home soil, coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said.
"We achieved our goal of getting past the first stage, getting to the final and give the players a sense of unity and the fans an idea that we have a good team that can get to the final of the World Cup," Scolari said after Paulinho's late header propelled them to the final.
"That is what we want to do and you only do that by winning. So we have achieved our objective. Now our objective is winning the final." Scolari, who guided Brazil to their last World Cup triumph in 2002, has been criticised in recent matches with Brazil fans chanting "donkey, donkey" as his team struggled to home draws with Chile and England.
Brazil, due to their paucity of competitive matches as they qualify for next year's final automatically as hosts, have also slipped to 22 in the world rankings.
Things have quickly turned around at the Confederations Cup, which is being used as a warmup for the global showpiece next year. The side have won all five of their last five matches, which includes all four at the Confederations Cup and Scolari felt the young side was building nicely ahead of next year's tournament though they still needed time to develop and mature, he said.
"This team has to face a lot of difficulties and grow, it needs to mature in certain situations," Scolari said.
"The 2002 team was much more prepared, they had six players who played in the 1998 World Cup. We have two or three (who played in South Africa in 2010). The important thing to note is that we still have a lot to learn about playing with more calm. We are still young, we struggle a little when it's a different game. We are going to have to mature a little and there is nothing like a match like this help you mature."
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