Ancelotti scouts Marcos Antonio as São Paulo win, call-up soon? | OneFootball

It was far from being Marcos Antonio’s best performance for São Paulo in the 2-0 victory over Vasco. The Tricolor’s ‘little engine’ didn’t find much space to create, wasn’t brilliant, but maintained the consistency that put him on Carlo Ancelotti’s radar for the Brazilian National Team.

The Italian coach was present at the match won by Tricolor this Sunday (2nd) in the Brasileirão for his final observations before Monday’s (3rd) squad announcement for the last friendlies of the green and yellow team in 2025.

He had many more Vasco players on his list to observe, but he’s also keeping an eye on São Paulo’s number 20, who was an important driving force in the team’s away victory.

Marcos missed only three of his 44 passes in the match, and one of his two long balls, sustaining his reputation as the main engine of Hernán Crespo’s midfield scheme.

With Tricolor playing a much more reactive game against Vasco, the midfielder didn’t have many attacking opportunities, didn’t shoot on goal, didn’t cross, but kept up his defensive work, with four ball recoveries and one duel won.

Marcos Antonio arrived on loan from Lazio in mid-2024 and gradually earned his place as an undisputed starter for Tricolor. This year, he’s made 40 appearances, with five assists, which led to his name being pre-selected in August for the matches that closed the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, against Chile and Bolivia. However, the Tricolor player suffered a thigh injury and was left out.

Now, Marcos Antonio has to wait until 3 p.m. (Brasília time) this afternoon to find out if he’ll be among those called up for Brazil, who will face Senegal on the 15th of this month at Emirates Stadium in London, England, and then take on Tunisia on the 18th at Decathlon Stadium in the French city of Lille.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.