THE Lancashire Telegraph’s own much-travelled sports reporter Chris Flanagan jets off to Brazil next week to take in two World Cup matches.

Chris, 30, will fly to Rio de Janeiro on Sunday for a mixture of football and sight-seeing.

And during his trip, Chris will report on his exploits through a blog on the Lancashire Telegraph’s special World Cup website.

When Brazil was chosen as the host nation for this year’s tournament, Chris said he just had to be there.

He said: “Given that the last tournament in Brazil was in 1950, the chances are this was a once-in-a- lifetime thing. In the autumn I applied for tickets and found out in November that I had secured a seat for a group game in Manaus on June 25. I didn’t know which game it would be until the draw took place a month later.

“Bizarrely, as I was on another adventure, I ended up following the draw on a failing mobile phone signal at 4am on a sleeper train just outside of Vladivostok, Russia.

“The game I had a ticket for - Switzerland versus Honduras!”

For more about the World Cup, visit www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/world_cup_2014/