SAO LUIS (Brazil), Nov 13: Brazil, after a rocky campaign which has seen them use four coaches and lose an unprecedented six matches, can finally claim a place at next year’s World Cup when they face Venezuela Wednesday.

Defeats against Paraguay, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay, Argentina and finally Bolivia have left the four-times world champions struggling to maintain their record as the only country to have taken part at every World Cup.

Victory Wednesday will end the suffering by guaranteeing them a top-four finish in the South American group but, to bag the points, Brazil must first overcome a Venezuelan team whose sudden rise has been as stunning as Brazil’s decline.

Venezuela, previously the whipping boys of South American football, have hit ten goals and conceded one on their way to winning their last four matches against Uruguay, Chile, Peru and Paraguay.

In the previous 13 games, they had lost eleven times and conceeded 40 goals, including six in their first meeting with Brazil in Maracaibo.

Before the current campaign Venezuela, who first entered the competition when they took part in the qualifiers for the 1966 World Cup, had only ever won twice and never picked up a point away from home.

Although the transformation has come too late to give them a chance of qualifying, Venezuela have seen the chance to make history by contributing to Brazil’s first failure to take part in a World Cup.

“Beating Brazil is a dream we have had since we were children,” said coach Richard Paez. “It seemed impossible a few months ago but after the improvements we have shown in the last few games it no longer seems out of our reach.

“We are going to try and give Brazil the fright of their lives. We have given Paraguay a good shaking and now we go in the hope that we have enough heart and ability to rattle the foundations of Brazilian football.”

Failure to win, combined with a Uruguayan victory over Argentina in Montevideo the same evening, could condemn Brazil to a two-leg play-off with Australia.

With morale dangerously low and the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) in chaos, Brazilian commentators fear the worst in any eventual showdown with the Oceania region winners.

Brazil could have qualified last Wednesday by winning in La Paz but instead crashed 3-1 in a performance many commentators agreed was one of the worst in living memory.—Reuters