Luiz Felipe Scolari (Brazil): “I am satisfied with the draw. But we shall be paying close attention to the opening phase. That should give us an incentive. I am not concerned with the second phase. Mexico is a classic going way back, I am happy with the match sequence.

“Overall it is good. England, Italy, Uruguay – that is the toughest group and we are not in this one! We open against a European team, which was my preference. We have the clasico, which will be very tough, in the middle. Then Cameroon. I think it’s good for us.”

Niko Kovac (Croatia): “It is very special: Brazil in the first game with the whole world watching. It will be something. We will try to make it difficult for them but it won’t be easy. Look at 2006 though, we gave them a very difficult game. Dida made some good saves and Kaka scored a very late goal.

“I think Brazil are the obvious favourites but second place is wide open. Mexico may have struggled recently but they are always strong at the World Cup. It is really tight for second place.”

Miguel Herrera (Mexico): “We have three hard opponents. We have to work hard to compete properly. But we have to be realistic. It is a hard group and the potential Group B opponents in the knockout stages are even harder. But we want to achieve certain aims.”

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