'MSN are like Brazil's Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho front three'

Guangzhou Evergrande manager Luiz Felipe Scolari praised Barcelona’s attacking power and compared them with the Brazil team that won the World Cup in 2002, but he hopes to provide an upset at the Yokohama Stadium on Thursday.

The Chinese side face Barça in the Club World Cup and Scolari talked about the significance of Neymar - his fellow Brazilian - possibly missing the game. 

“Neymar’s progressed massively in the last five years - he is one of the best three players in the world now,” he said. 

“He would be a decisive player in any team in the world, let alone at Barcelona when there are 25 more [players] with a similar style to him! If he continues fighting as he is, he will be battling to be the best player in the world for many years.” 

Scolari also spoke about Lionel Messi: “He’s always one of the three best players in the world. It will not be easy to stop him. 

“We have tactics in place in relation to who we play, but the problem is you can’t just focus on Messi - there’s [Ivan] Rakitic, [Luis] Suarez, [Andres] Iniesta… they have so many players you have to pay attention to.

“[Messi, Suarez and Neymar] are similar to the Brazil 2002 forwards [Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho], but I don’t know which trio has more quality. 

“I don’t know if it would be Barcelona or Brazil. They are all decisive players."