Bruno Guimaraes suffers Guayaquil setback | OneFootball

Bruno Guimaraes was back in action on Thursday night (early hours of Friday morning in UK time).

As the Newcastle United star and his Brazil teammates looked to make sure of 2026 World Cup qualification.

A bit of a setback in Guayaquil though, as Carlo Ancelotti oversaw a poor goalless daw against Ecuador, a match that had minimal chances at either end.

Brazil have consistently struggled for goals and had only scored 20 in 14 World Cup group qualifiers, now it is 20 goals in 15 qualifiers.

To make matters worse in attack, both Rodrygo and Raphinha were unavailable for this match. Richarlison was woeful and Estevao little better, leaving Vinicius Junior as the only real threat of any kind.  The Real Madrid star set up Casemiro for the best chance of the night but the Man U midfielder’s feeble effort summed up the match.

Bruno Guimaraes was one of the better performers on the night and played all but the very final couple of minutes as he was replaced in added time.

In the Goal player ratings, only Marquinhos (8/10) in defence got a better rating than Bruno Guimaraes (7/10). This is what they said about the midfield trio:

Midfield

Unsurprising to see him handed another starring role by a former Madrid manager. Solid when the game was cagey, but exposed a little more as it opened up.

Bruno Guimaraes (7/10):

Seemed eager to spend most of the game just smashing into people and winning tackles. Effective, but exemplifies the lack of attacking thrust in this team.

Gerson (5/10):

The worst of the midfield trio. Completed just three passes into the final third.

The fact that Casemiro is still getting a start for Brazil, despite looking past it in the Premier League, no wonder Brazil aren’t world beaters at the moment. Gerson as well isn’t really up the levels needed either if Brazil are to do well at the finals next summer, assuming they qualify of course.

Elsewhere, former Newcastle United winger Miguel Almiron and Paraguay continued their stunning progress, overtaking both Brazil and Uruguay in the table, with a 2-0 home win over Uruguay last night:

The failure to win last night means that Bruno Guimaraes and Brazil still have some work to do with three group matches remaining.

A huge game on Wednesday sees Brazil at home to Paraguay.

With the top six in the South American group qualifying (seventh goes into a play-off), Brazil should be ok, but they need to make sure AND would like to do it in style, rather than crawling over the qualification line.

Thursday 5 June

Ecuador 0 Brazil 0

Bruno Guimaraes was one of Brazil’s better players in this dour World Cup group qualifier, Ancelotti’s first game in charge. In the Goal ratings only Marquinhos (8/10) getting a higher rating than Bruno Guimaraes (7/10). A match of minimal chances at either end and when Vinicius Junior set up the best opportunity of the game for Casemiro, it was a feeble effort from the Man U player. A win would have seen Brazil pretty much sure of qualifying but a point means a little more work to do to make sure.

Friday 6 June

Norway v Italy (Sandro Tonali) World Cup group qualifier

Saturday 7 June

Andorra v England (Anthony Gordon, Dan Burn) World Cup group qualifier (Neutral venue – Barcelona)

Greece v Slovakia (Odysseas Vlachodimos, Martin Dubravka) Friendly

Monday 9 June

Italy v Moldova (Sandro Tonali) World Cup group qualifier

Tuesday 10 June

England v Senegal (Anthony Gordon, Dan Burn) Friendly

Greece v Bulgaria (Odysseas Vlachodimos) Friendly

Slovakia v Israel (Martin Dubravka) Friendly

Wednesday 11 June