Brazil's perfect couple: Why Thiago Silva and David Luiz gel so well for the Seleção

During last summer’s Confederations Cup, one image provided some light relief from the scenes of police brutality and looting that marked the more troublesome side of the protests throughout Brazil. It showed two children – one with an enigmatic pout, the other with extravagant curly hair – sitting on the bonnet of a car. The former was a dead ringer for Thiago Silva; the latter looked just enough like David Luiz for the picture to go viral.

The pair (of footballers, not their look-alikes) will once again be in the spotlight this summer. In many ways, they make for an odd couple. Thiago Silva is quiet and reserved, preferring to do his talking on the pitch, while David Luiz adores the spotlight, rarely forgoing the chance to speak his mind or share his personal life online. You get the sense that, if they met one another in street in a world without football, they would probably not have a great deal to talk about.

On the field, however, they dovetail wonderfully. Theirs is a gloriously instinctive division of labour: Thiago intercepts, David makes the last-ditch interventions; Thiago leads by example, David shouts himself hoarse; Thiago spreads calm, David energises. The whole is greater than its two contrasting parts.

Read the rest of this piece on the Yahoo! Eurosport site.