Newcastle United’s Kieran Trippier reveals Bruno Guimaraes ‘mind games’ ahead of World Cup

Trippier and Guimaraes will be representing England and Brazil respectively at this winter’s tournament. They are two of six representatives Newcastle have at the World Cup with Nick Pope and Callum Wilson also in the England squad while Fabian Schar will take part in his third World Cup with Switzerland.

Teenage forward Garang Kuol will also be in Qatar with Australia ahead of officially completing his move to Newcastle in January.

While Schar and Guimaraes face each other in the group stages with Brazil and Switzerland both in Group G, Trippier would have to help England get through to at least the semi-final in order to come up against Brazil. Should both nations win their respective groups, the earliest knockout stage they could meet is the final itself.

The five-time world champions head into Qatar as the tournament favourites and that confidence has already rubbed off on Guimaraes.

Trippier revealed in an England zoom conference, via The Times: “We’ve had a bit of banter because somebody mentioned us and Brazil can cross paths [in the final].

"Bruno tries to wind us up all the time with how much quality England have got and when we play each other we’re not going to beat Brazil, so he’s trying to play mind games already.

"He’s a really good, bubbly character, a really nice guy and he’s taken the Premier League by storm as well.”