Brazil guaranteed to win the World Cup as ‘nerves all over the place’ under Ancelotti | OneFootball

If Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid legacy taught us anything, it’s that Brazil are about to win their sixth World Cup.

No manager has lifted the Champions League as often as a coach whose completion of the game at club level has driven this ultimate luxury appointment. The last of those European Cups was won in a substandard final performance, in a showpiece they only reached through an absurd Joselu haze, before which came a victory on penalties and a thoroughly unconvincing stumble past Leipzig.

Two years prior, Real ruled the continent by scraping past Paris Saint-Germain, then both Chelsea and Manchester City after extra time, and Liverpool in a hilariously lopsided final.

They did generally make light work of the group stage ahead of running on vibes and aura in the knockouts, which is where Ancelotti’s Brazil already seem to differ from his Real. But an opening draw with Morocco being rescued by a moment of individual brilliance from Vinicius Junior to make up for a series of tactical shortcomings felt apt.

This was otherwise a bit of a mess. And not a difficult one to envisage pre-tournament.

Roger Ibanez, the Saudi-based centre-half deployed at right-back, was mercilessly targeted early on and removed at half-time. As was the booked Casemiro, who made way for the positively sprightly 32-year-old Fabinho.

Igor Thiago wasted his one gilt-edged chance and was otherwise almost entirely anonymous; Joao Pedro would have thrived with this support act.

Brazil looked lethargic, weak and old. Ancelotti described them after the game as “a bit anxious” with “nerves all over the place”, and there was a certain rabbit-in-the-headlights quality to their first half in particular.

As semi-finalists in 2022, perhaps Morocco should have been given more credit heading into this tournament. But this is a different team with different players and a different manager to three-and-a-half years ago. The phenomenal work of Walid Regragui has been built on by Mohamed Ouahbi and this was compelling proof of their evolution.

Morocco dominated Brazil early on. After half an hour they had 11 shots to three, taking a deserved lead through Ismael Saibari’s exceptionally well-worked goal and generally exploiting every weak point in this non-vintage Selecao.

The sharpest contrast was in midfield. Ayyoub Bouaddi, the 18-year-old France youth international and Arsenal transfer target, looked ludicrously comfortable on this stage while Casemiro in particular – but not exclusively – struggled.

At one stage it did seem as though this, the first World Cup without Pele since 1938, might finally see his premonition about an African winner eventually and belatedly come true.

But then the Ancelotti effect kicked in. Vinicius received the ball wide on the left, cut inside and thrashed an effort past Yassine Bounou. Brazil, from that point, and not coincidentally after the first-half drinks break, were the better team.

Yet even in the ascendancy, they did not resemble potential winners at this early stage of the tournament. While only a fool would ever rule out an Ancelotti outfit from figuring it out on the fly and outlasting the rest of the field through increasingly preposterous means, this did seem more like proof of why they won’t.