Luiz Felipe Scolari: Staying with the Brazil team despite the death of his nephew

Luiz Felipe Scolari has decided to stay with the Brazil team despite the death of his nephew in an accident two days before the World Cup opener.

Scolari attended the official FIFA press conference on Wednesday and did not travel to be with his family in southern Brazil, where 48-year-old Tarcisio Joao Schneider died in a car accident on Tuesday.

Brazil take on Croatia at Sao Paulo's Itaquerao Stadium for the first game of the tournament and Scolari is doing his utmost to stay focused on the football.    

"Sometimes we have to deal with some difficulties, but you have to try to move on," he said.

Scolari's side are the favourites to lift the trophy on home soil and the former Chelsea boss is hoping to bring a sense of pride to the country where there has been long-running protests against hosting the competition.

He said: "For all Brazilians, I want to say our time has arrived. We want to go together. This is our World Cup."

Scolari was joined by talismanic striker Neymar in his press conference, but he was keen to avert attention from the 22-year-old amid huge expectations for the Barcelona man this summer.

"The star player will be the champion because if you're the star player and don't win the World Cup, it doesn't make sense," he said.

"We have to go up these seven steps but, to start, we have to think of the first step. We can't jump the seven."

Neymar had an injury scare in training with Brazil earlier in the week, but he is expected to lead the line against Croatia and the former Santos star is determined to fire his country to glory.

He said: "I don't want to be the best player in the World Cup, I don't want to be the striker, I want to win the World Cup.

"We hope that this last day goes by very quickly. I am anxious of course but also I'm extremely happy being where I am today because many people would like to be here.

"I really hope I can help my team in the best possible way to fulfill the dream of the players, and Brazilians, which is to win the World Cup."