Is Vinicius Junior playing? Brazil vs Morocco projected lineups for 2026 World Cup Group C game

Brazil and Morocco begin their journey in Group C of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in what promises to be one of the most intriguing matches of the tournament’s opening stage. Vinicius Junior is expected to start as one of the forwards for the South American side.

The match will be played this Saturday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey and will be officiated by Slovenia’s Slavko Vincic. It is the opening match of Group C, which also includes Scotland and Haiti, who will face each other later on Saturday.

After one year in charge of Brazil, Carlo Ancelotti will face his first major international challenge. He was hired as the highest-paid coach among all national teams in the world precisely to reach this moment, with the goal of guiding Brazil to their first World Cup title in 24 years.

To achieve that, the Italian manager will look to maximize the strengths of his two biggest stars, Vinicius and Raphinha, on the wings, supported by the quality and experience of players such as Casemiro and Marquinhos in defensive roles.

But the challenge will be far from easy, as Morocco are determined to replicate — and even improve on — their run at Qatar 2022, where they reached the semifinals. To do so, they will rely on several stars from that squad, alongside young talents who have emerged in recent years, such as Real Madrid midfielder Brahim Diaz.

Projected Brazil lineup

After experimenting with several options in recent weeks, Carlo Ancelotti appears to have abandoned the idea of playing with four forwards and will instead reinforce the midfield to give his side greater control of possession, with Lucas Paqueta joining Casemiro and Bruno Guimaraes.

With that in mind, Brazil’s projected lineup is: Alisson; Danilo, Marquinhos, Gabriel Magalhaes, Alex Sandro; Bruno Guimaraes, Casemiro, Lucas Paqueta; Raphinha, Matheus Cunha, Vinicius Junior.

Projected Morocco lineup

Morocco suffered a major setback over the past week when two of their top players were ruled out of the World Cup: winger Abde Ezzalzouli and defender Nayef Aguerd were sidelined with injuries and replaced in the squad by Amine Sbai and Marwane Saadane.

With that in mind, Morocco’s projected lineup is: Yassine Bounou; Achraf Hakimi, Issa Diop, Chadi Riad, Noussair Mazraoui; Sofyan Amrabat, Neil El Aynaoui, Azzedine Ounahi; Brahim Diaz, Ismael Saibari, Soufiane Rahimi.