Brazil coach admits campaign was not pretty

Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari admitted on Wednesday that his team's agonising but ultimately successful World Cup qualifying campaign had not been a pretty sight.

"We've reached the target. Brazil are in the World Cup. Not in the manner we would have wanted, but we have got there," he said after the 3-0 win over Venezuela.

"It was nothing spectacular but it was what we needed."

Brazil scraped into the World Cup in the final game of a campaign in which they used four coaches and lost an unprecendented six of their 18 matches including defeats to Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay and Ecuador.

None of their performances matched up to the proud history of the only country to have taken part at every World Cup.

Scolari was Brazil's fourth coach of the competition but knew that if they did not qualify, history would have associated his name with the failure rather than that of any of his predecessors.

"I want to thank the Brazilian people who always took us into their arms wherever we went. Secondly, I want to thank (Brazilian Football Confederation) president Ricardo Teixiera, who always backed me and gave me the best working conditions," he said.

Scolari was in charge for six qualifiers, winning home games with Paraguay, Chile and Venezuela and losing the away games to Uruguay, Argentina and Bolivia.

Despite huge criticism for his teams' ultra-defensive and physical tactics, the man known as "Big Phil" said he wanted to stay on for the World Cup.

"My intention is to continue. I don't want to leave. I've enjoyed it. We've got a group, it's nothing out of this world, but if we work hard we can get to the World Cup on a par with everyone else," he said.