Football
Adriana Garcia 7y

Chile's Arturo Vidal 'a little bit worried' ahead of Confederations Cup

Arturo Vidal says Chile must improve if they are to challenge for the Confederations Cup, following a surprise defeat against Romania in their final warm-up game for the tournament.

Chile, who fell 3-2 against Romania on Tuesday, play Cameroon in Moscow on Sunday in their Group B opener.

Vidal came on as a second-half substitute, and warned the result in Cluj is a wake-up call for the Copa America champions.

"Friendlies are for that, to make mistakes," he told AS Chile after the game. "But I just hope we don't repeat those as it left me a little bit worried.

"The important thing is not to make those mistakes in official games."

Chile were 2-1 up before Gary Medel, who was captaining the team in Claudio Bravo's absence, was shown a red card in the 32nd minute.

The Inter Milan defender was dismissed for an off-the-ball kick against Romania's Florin Andone. La Roja would go on to concede two goals in the second half.

"There are many things to improve on," Vidal said. "The positive was that everyone played some minutes to arrive well at the Cup."

Manchester City goalkeeper Claudio Bravo is expected to miss Sunday's encounter with the Chile captain fighting to recover from a left calf muscular problem.

Bravo was granted permission by the Chile Football Association to travel to Barcelona on Monday to testify in court regarding his case against Real Sociedad.

Bravo claims he is owed a €1.3 million bonus payment from his transfer to Barcelona from Real Sociedad in the summer of 2014 as his contract stipulated that he was entitled to 10 percent of any transfer fee.

Reports in Chile claimed Bravo took advantage of his trip to Barcelona to undergo medical tests there in order to evaluate his progress.

"Claudio has a muscular damage in his calf that needs more recovery time," Chile team doctor Fernando Yanez told La Tercera newspaper. "It's a complicated area ... his recovery is slow. We haven't given ourselves a recovery time limit for him to return to training regularly."

Bravo is a key player for Chile although Vidal also believes Universidad de Chile keeper Johnny Herrera, who started on Tuesday, can do a good job in his absence.

"We hope Bravo arrives well," Vidal said. "He is not with us right now. He is our captain and he is very important to us, to hear his voice in the changing room.

"We are confident he will be with us in time for the [Confederations] Cup. We nevertheless have confidence in the 23 that are here."

Chile, coached by Juan Antonio Pizzi, also face Germany and Australia in the group stages of the Confederations Cup.

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