Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has insisted that it is his side's time to win the World Cup in front of their home fans this summer, ahead of Thursday's opener against Croatia.

Scolari said that there were seven very important matches to get through first and, despite being confident of victory overall, it was important to focus only on the next game.

"There are seven steps," FIFA.com quotes Scolari as saying. "We have to go up those seven steps but to start we have to think of the first step.

"We can't jump the seven steps. The first step is tomorrow against Croatia. After that we have six steps that we want to go up if we want to win the World Cup."

Brazil last won the World Cup in 2002.