Ok, so we are still a way off the start of the new Premier League season, but the opening day fixtures are now out. See the full list of top-flight games and the early match betting.

Brazil coach Carlos Dunga praised the attitude of his players after they came from two goals down in the first half to defeat the United States 3-2 in the final of the Confederations Cup.

“First of all, we have a very determined side. The players have heaps of quality. They are great players. For 29 days they haven’t seen their families. Today it was tough, because we could have played even better. But we have total confidence in this group,” said Dunga.

The 1994 World Cup winner believes one of the reasons why Brazil started slowly against the United States was because his players were exhausted, not only because of the demands of the tournament and the World Cup qualifiers, but also because of long European seasons, for most part of the players.

“Like all finals, it was tough. To get a result after going behind 2-0, shows the kind of players we count with.”

Brazil were two goals down going into the half time interval, but two goals from Luis Fabiano and another from captain Lucio gave them a dramatic victory.

“We changed the positioning,” explained Dunga, who brought on Elano and Daniel Alves for Ramires and Andre Santos. “We made the team push more forward to pressure our opponents. We scored an early goal and then we had more speed with the substitutions we made,”

Dunga singled out the contribution of striker Luis Fabiano to the team’s success.

“I have heard some people say that Luis Fabiano scores goals but is not good for the national team,” Dunga said after the game.

“In the way I see football, a good striker is that who scores goals. And he does that.

“Once, we were in a training in which the players could touch the ball just two times and some players would send the ball wide when in front of the goal.

“But not him. He would go there and score, because he is hungry for goals. That’s why I decided to put him on the team.”

Ok, so we are still a way off the start of the new Premier League season, but the opening day fixtures are now out. See the full list of top-flight games and the early match betting.

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