体坛英语新闻：Chile and Brazil kick-off their roads to World Cup Russia 2018

SANTIAGO, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chile's national soccer team will face Brazil on Thursday night at 20:30 local time (23:30 GMT) in Santiago's National Stadium as both teams kick-off their World Cup Russia 2018 Qualifiers campaign.

Statistics seem to favor Brazil: out of the past 70 matches played, Brazil have won 49 while Chile have only won seven. Brazil has scored 161 times while Chile has only scored 59 goals.

However, a certain uncertainty surrounds this match since Chile won the Copa America recently and Brazil have been playing irregularly since Germany eliminated them from the World Cup 2014 by beating them 7-1 on Brazilian soil.

Chile's trainer Jorge Sampaoli told local media that starting the South America Qualifiers with Brazil is "one of the worst possible situations because they are still a major power at world level even though they have gone through difficult moments and various criticism."

For this match, players Alexis Sanchez and Arturo Vidal are doubtful as neither of the two have attended a proper training session due to injuries.

Brazil will also enter into the match missing Neymar, one of their star players, due to match-bans that he received after insulting a referee during the Copa America tournament.

Despite this, come into the match fresh from two friendly victories that they played after being knocked out of the Copa America in the quarter finals by Paraguay through penalties.