Loud music blared as the workers raced against time to finish the remaining inside the Arena Corinthians — the venue for World Cup’s opening game between Brazil and Croatia on Thursday.

On Tuesday, when only a handful of journalists could get access to the stadium, Dawn managed to get inside the newly-built stadium that has been overrun by delays.

The 20,000 temporary seats for the opening match were in place on Sunday as workers were rushing to clean them and the 41,000 other seats.

The stadium couldn’t manage to hold a test event with full capacity with firefighters refusing to allow people on the temporary seating area during the junior match held on Sunday.

During its construction, two people were killed when a crane collapsed onto the roof, which leaked during the rain during another test event held at the stadium on May 18 and remains unfinished.

Although the outside of the stadium still presents a site under construction, with cables still lying on the entrances and exits to the main arena, the pitch seemed pristine as it glowed in the faint sunshine that fell on an overcast Tuesday in Sao Paulo.

“The stadium will be ready … be sure about that,” one of the construction workers told Dawn.

It has to be otherwise the Brazilian organisers who got the right to host the World Cup would be left red-faced.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2014