Ancelotti watches as Marcos Antonio shines in São Paulo win | 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 (2) in the Brasileirão for his final observations before this Monday’s (3) call-up for the last friendlies of the green and yellow squad in 2025.

There were many more Vasco players on his watchlist, but he’s also keeping an eye on São Paulo’s number 20, who was an important driver of the team’s away victory.

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

With Tricolor being much more reactive against Vasco, the midfielder didn’t have many attacking actions, 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 has made 40 appearances, with five assists, which led to his name being pre-selected in August for the matches that closed out 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 must wait until 3pm (Brasília time) today to find out if he will 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.