And that was that. They shake hands, lots of shirts being exchanged, we see Vinicius and Manvir having a cordial word with each other. The Brazilians have been thoroughly professional today. Vinicius, in fact, is obliging as seemingly every single Indian player asks for a picture with him. At the same time, though, clips of him going for that ridiculous volley and missing it royally is certainly going to be doing a few rounds of social media, even though the ref's whistle had gone off by then. As will Bruno Guimaraes' botched attempt at chasing down a ball and botching a cut back. The Indians, meanwhile, may have lost 4-0 but this is a very encouraging result for them. Particularly the way they played for the first 20 minutes. Much higher ranked teams have suffered much bigger defeats at home to Brazil.
Samuel Lino dribbles all the way from the touchline on the left, dips a shoulder and races past Edmund, cuts inside again and whips in a shot at the near post. That should be the last kick of the game.
A grand total of nothing to report in the past few minutes. The match is petering out into nothingness, the Brazilians are walking around, not allowing India to do much when they have the ball.
Right after the game resumes, Endrick charges behind the backline, tries to find a way through at a sharp angle near the byline but then cuts back when there was no space. Guimaraes collects it in a dangerous-looking pocket outside the box, thinks of taking a shot but then doesn't do so.
India then make another trough of changes, Ryan Williams and Manveer Singh go off for Farukh Choudhary and Vikram Partap Singh.
Sanan with a clever pass to Manvir as India charge towards the Brazilian box. Manvir is in space on the left and looks to surprise the Brazilian keeper with a first-time shot at the near post. It was a good idea but the shot was off target.
Then comes a hydration break.
Brazil have been caught off side and the fact that there are lots of substitutions happening is not helping the flow of the game either. Estevao has been taken off for Breno Biden, Endrick is on for Pedro, Matheus Martinelli is in for Santos.
For India Edmund has been brought on for Samad, Pramveer Singh has come on for Varghese and Valpuia for Abhishek.
67th min: It has to be said that India are getting these chances because every single Brazilian player is playing inside their half. This means that a simple ball over the top is enough for it to look like either Manvir or Williams are clear for a hot second, before the Brazilians catch up and smother the danger. Here Williams plays Manvir through and then runs to the edge of the box into space. Manvir sees his striking partner and picks him out but Williams' first-time shot leaves a lot to be desired.
63rd min: Oh Ryan Williams is the starter of that and for a moment, the Brazilians were scrambling around inside their 6-yard box. He chases the ball down on the left, keeps his composure and gets past a Brazilian shirt inside the box. He takes the shot, keeper Pedro is nowhere near it but it is straight at Samuel Lino. He doesn't do a very job of clearing it off the line and the ball slowly, and worryingly for Brazil rolls to the byline and out, with Williams chasing after it.
Samuel Lino scores, hardly any celebration there from the Brazilians. Well that was some horrific defending from India. Bijoy fails in his attempt to clear the ball and just gifts it back to Brazil. Lino is played in from the left with acres of space in the box. He goes for a curler and puts it past Gill.
51st min: Estevao leaves Anwar Ali in tangles with his close control at the edge of the box. However, the latter manages to block out his cross and India counter. Jay Gupta with a nice one-two with Sahal but they lose the ball briefly. It comes back quickly though and Williams charges into the box from the right. He takes a bit of a speculative shot and the goalkeeper Pedro collects it with ease.
All right then, what can India get upto in this half? WE will wait and see. Brazil get us underway...
Brazil have... well... they've made changes all right. India have also made a few, they have made lesser and so it's easier to list them out first. First up, Jamil has taken off Sandhu, although surely that is more to ensure that Prabhsukhan Gill gets to know what it is like to play against Brazil than getting the Indian captain out after his two mistakes. Mohammed Sannan has come on for Aashique Kuruniyan and Akash Mishra has been taken off for Jay Gupta.
All right now for the Brazilian changes: Arthur Dias, Matheuzinho, Gabriel Bontempo, Vinicius jr, and Douglas Santos have been taken off; Gabriel, Vanderson, Douglas Luiz, Samuel Lino and Bruno Guimaraes have come on.
Well, Sandhu really has a lot of blame to take for the two goals that India conceded. And yet. This is Brazil. And they only have a 2-0 lead at the end of the first half. India have endured far more embarassing scorelines at half time against far lower-ranked opponents. This scoreline definitely exceeds expectations. And one wonders what it would've been like if India played like this, with this level of discipline and organisation in defence and attack, against teams closer to them in the FIFA rankings.
It has to be said though, Sandhu's goalkeeping is not the only reason why India are 2-0 behind. 19-year-old Estevao really showed the flare for which Chelsea shelled out nearly 30 million pounds when he was 17. Vinicius has been threatening throughout the half. India have held relatively strong despite all of that.
44th min: Wow Sandhu is having a mare here. Estevao frees up Vinicius from the right. The Real Madrid man takes a sliding shot at Gurpreet, who tries to stop it with a trailing leg. The ball squirms right under him and is, horrifyingly for any keeper, loose right in front of an empty goal. There are Brazilian shirts bearing down but Abhishek gets there first and clears it. Inhale and exhale Gurpreet. Inhale and exhale.
Estevao with the assist this time. Cuts in from the right and pierces the channels into open space for Pedro to chase. Sandhu comes forward, Pedro's shot goes right through him. Two goals Brazil have scored, both times the ball has gone through Sandhu, not evaded him. Not a good look for the Indian captain.
40th min: India's final third entries have disappeared since they conceded but the Brazilians themselves aren't looking too keen to increase their lead very soon. A lot of leisurely lateral passes between the defenders with the players' skins gleaming with sweat. Remember, a lot of these players are used to playing in colder climes in Europe, with the exception of the likes of Matheuzinho who ply their trade back home in Brazil. And moreover, their pre-match routine doesn't normally involve a haphazardly organsed state dinner on the eve of a match in which they have to stand for 10 minutes listening to speeches in a language they don't understand.
36th min: Estevao once again trying to dribble his way in. He eventually lays it off for the overlapping Matheuzinho who puts the cross in. Pedro is in the middle but he can't get the best of connections with his header. Gurpreet was beaten on his left but the ball hits the post.
31 mins: And it is long enough for two full ads and a few pieces of others to be shown. No surprises there of course, a legacy of the 2026 World Cup. Anyhow, just before that, Vinicius with a foray forward that was smothered once again by Gurpreet.
Some Brazilian joga bonito from Estevao there to put them ahead. He isn't getting too many minutes under Xabi Alonso at Chelsea but he shows what he can do here. Estevao gets the ball on the right, moves in and out, here and there, Kuruniyan is in front of him and the Indian gets into a tangle and Estevao cuts right inside him. He gets the space, takes the shot at the near post and squeezes through under Gurpreet and into goal.
It is truly mindboggling just how well oiled this Indian team is looking in defence as they did against Panama. Why is it mindboggling? Well because remember that it was pretty much the same set of players who formed the team that lost to the likes of Bangladesh and Singapore and couldn't beat Afghanistan because of which they are not going to play the Asian Cup. They looked completely toothless in attack and clueless in defence in those games. Here, they are not giving an easy route for Brazil to score by any stretch of imagination. Varghese has thus far done a very good job indeed of keeping Vinicius from finding a lot of space.
For the first 15 minutes India have surprisingly kept Brazil quiet, even going toe to toe with them on occasions. If this scoreline stays the same, a draw will be celebrated justcas wildly as an outright win
Vinicius shows Abhishek the ball and then dances past him on the byline left side of goal. He then tries a low cross across the face of goal but Gurpreet smothers it out for a corner, which comes to nothing.
15th min: Now then, a ball over the top on the right, Manveer chases it, Marquinhos is behind him. But just when the Indian striker seems to have gained any control of it in the box, Marquinhos knocks it away from him and to the Brazilian goalkeeper. The PSG captain made it look a little too easy there.
13th min: It has to be said, the Brazilians have been pretty sloppy thus far. There has been only one moment when Gurpreet had to make a proper save and that was when Vinicius took a shot at him from the right at the near post. Now Danilo with a clumsy ball over the top that is miles ahead of where Vinicius was. That seems to have got Ancelotti off his seat, eyebrow firmly raised.
Vinicius has been the go-to man thus far for Brazil for every foray they have made into the box. And there have been a lot already. This time, it looks more dangerous than ever as he leaves Bijoy Varghese behind. He then goes for a tame cut back and the whistle goes off for offside. He looks like he knew he was offside as well.
5 mins: Well that is not something you might see too often during this match, earned by Manvir. Thapa took it short, it is cleared away for another corner. This time Thapa sends it into the mixer, Brazil head it out and then Apuia goes for a first time volley outside the box. Not too far away from the target.
India come away with the ball and Apuia with an ambitious long ball, trying to find Manveer. It is too high for him though and Marquinhos takes control of the ball. Brazil then slow the pace down a bit.
All right here we go then! Brazil in their iconic yellow, India in blue. India kick things off but Brazil take possession straightaway and Vinicius charges forward from the left, puts in a cross that India deal with.
All right, first came Brazil's national anthem and then India's. And it is Jana Gana Mana for India, Vande Mataram doesn't play before that, unlike what was being said in some corners of social media.
Fans who followed the U17 World Cup that India had hosted in 2017 would remember that Vinicius was among the names to look out for in the tournament. It was already confirmed that the then-teenager had been snapped up by Real Madrid from Flamengo. However, his home club ended up refusing to release him for the tournament, something that the Brazilian football federation was not too happy about.
“We want the best for Vinicius, he is an intelligent and important player for the national team, but he has not participated in the preparation weeks that they have had,” Flamengo coach Reinaldo Rueda was quoted as saying by GloboEsporte.com.
“He knows that he could have gone and helped, but he also wants to respect the situation. He knows there are good players in the squad and so he is going to stay with us. We hope Brazil will succeed in the World Cup.”
This is what Sayak Dutta had to report on what he saw yesterday: "...as one leaves the vicinity of the stadium, it becomes a struggle to imagine that the Selecao are indeed present in the City of Joy. Except for some match hoardings scattered around the city, there are many more Durga Puja banners on the streets as Bengal prepares for its biggest festival in about a fortnight.
"There weren’t even a gaggle of fans present near the team hotel with just a few enthusiasts wearing Brazil jerseys scattered around the stadium when the five-time world champions trained before the match. This meant that either the strict security blanket for this match has put a lot of people off or the excitement about the occasion hasn’t quite reached fever pitch." READ MORE.
The Indian goalkeeper had spoken to Shuvaditya Bose about his thoughts going into this match. He admits that the first time he heard that this match was going to happen, his first reaction was to do a fact-check. "We’re a team that mostly plays opponents from Asia, and sometimes from Africa. To hear we will be playing Brazil came as a bit of a surprise. Now that it is coming to fruition, though, I feel very proud. They are one of the biggest teams in the world, and we want to play against such teams. I know it is only a friendly — it is not like India are playing Brazil in the World Cup. Still, to play against the five-time champions is a huge honour." READ MORE
Bhaichung Bhutia was not the biggest fan of this match, he had aired his displeasure a long time back and yesterday, he aired his displeasure to our very own Rohit Mundayur as well. The former India captain pulled absolutely no punches and you can read that HERE.
The broadcasters have mentioned the words "crowd" and "noise" countless times already despite having been on air for only a few minutes but the reality is a little different. Sayak Dutta is our man on the ground and he reported that empty seats were the cast majority about an hour and 15 minutes before the match. Even now the broadcasters can't really hide the empty seats there. The tickets were not exactly the cheapest for this one and even the AIFF put out a call to action to buy tickets about three and a half bours going into the match today. There is usually not an empty space to be seen during Kolkata derbies here and this city has its fair share of lovers for Brazilian football, to put it very mildly. And yet, empty seats at the Salt Lake Stadium in a Saturday evening.
All right the teams are out and this is how the two teams are lining up
India XI: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (GK), Abhishek Singh, Anwar Ali, Bijoy Varghese, Akash Mishra, Anirudh Thapa, Apuia, Manvir Singh, Sahal Abdul Samad, Ashique Kuruniyan, Ryan Williams
Brazil XI: Pedro Morisco (GK), Matheuzinho, Arthur Dias, Marquinhos, Douglas Santos, Danilo, Andrey Santos, Estevao, Gabriel Bontempo, Vinicius Jr., Pedro
...to a match that, lets face it, we have all imagined seeing almost incredulously at some point in all our lives. It is the kind of game that is played on video games between seasoned veterans and newbies, with the latter picking Brazil. India vs Brazil is a game that no one thought will be seen in reality but here we are. It's buildup has been imperfect, there are lots of questions around the relevance of this match in the realest of terms but in terms of chapters in Indian football history, this is a new entry. For better or for worse.
