Brazil face Australia and India in first post-World Cup break | OneFootball

Brazil to face Australia and India in the first post-World Cup FIFA international window Credits: Nelson Terme/CBF

Brazil already know their opponents for the first FIFA international window after the 2026 World Cup: Australia and India. Against the two home sides, between September 21 and October 6, the Seleção will begin its period of preparation and evaluation for the next Copa América cycle in 2028 and the 2030 World Cup.

Two friendlies against Australia

In this call-up, Brazil will play two friendlies against Australia and one against India. On September 25, they will take on the Australians at Queensland Country Bank Stadium in Townsville. The coastal city is located in the northeast of the country. The stadium, opened in February 2020, has a capacity of more than 25,000.

On June 13, 2017, Diego Souza opened the scoring in the 4-0 win over Australia after ten seconds and netted the fastest goal in Brazil national team historyCredits: Pedro Martins/Mowa Press

Four days later, on September 29, Brazil will again face the hosts, this time at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. It is Australia’s third most populous city, with more than two million inhabitants, and one of the country’s main economic hubs. It is home to Suncorp Stadium, inaugurated in 1914, with a capacity of more than 52,000. In 2023, it hosted a match involving the Brazil women’s national team at the World Cup and, in 2024, a friendly against Australia.

Brazil and Australia last met on June 13, 2017, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, where the Seleção cruised to a 4-0 win with goals from Diego Souza (2), Thiago Silva, and Taison. Their first meeting took place on July 7, 1988, in the Australian Bicentenary Gold Cup. At Olympic Parks Trust, also in Melbourne, Brazil won 1-0 with a goal from Romário.

In eight matches, the record between Brazil and Australia stands at six Brazilian wins, one draw, and one Australian victory. Brazil have scored 21 goals and conceded just one.

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First meeting with India

Next, Brazil will play their first-ever match against the India national team. This unprecedented meeting will take place on Saturday, October 3, at Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan Stadium (known as Salt Lake Stadium) in Kolkata.

Kolkata is known as the city with the richest sporting history in India and has already hosted many top-level football matches, including Brazil’s U-17 national team games at the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup. The stadium has a capacity of 63,000 and was inaugurated in 1984. It regularly hosts one of the biggest club football derbies.

The presence of the Brazil national team in India reflects the team’s great prestige in the region, where a large part of the population cheers for Brazil’s success and admires the country’s top players. India is known for having the largest Brazilian fan base outside Brazil.

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Rodrigo Caetano and Carlo Ancelotti

Rodrigo Caetano, general executive coordinator of the men’s national teams, assessed the start of the cycle toward the 2030 World Cup and explained the choice of the Seleção’s next opponents.

“Representing the Brazil national team in any match carries enormous responsibility, especially at the start of a new cycle, when we hope to have greater stability so that we can reach 2030 with a very solid team and squad, better than in 2026,” he stressed.

“We’re going to face Australia, who advanced from the group stage and were eliminated in the second round, but showed tremendous progress. Against India, there is the technical aspect, but also a great deal of gratitude to the Indian people, who showed enormous affection and support for the Brazil national team during the World Cup. So it is only fair that we go there as a way of saying thank you, but also to play a major match,” he added.

Caetano also commented on the goal of rejuvenating the national team throughout the cycle toward the 2030 World Cup and explained how this work has been carried out by the coaching staffs of the senior and youth national teams.

“Many of the players we have already been monitoring since we resumed our work are part of this effort to rejuvenate the national team. In a longer cycle, we are absolutely certain that many talents will emerge from the youth teams. Not only from the U-20 and Olympic teams, but exceptional players may also come from the U-17s. The Mister, like our entire staff, has already held very productive meetings with the U-20 and U-17 teams, together with coaches Paulo Victor and Dudu Patetuci, with the intention of identifying new names and talents who will certainly be tested throughout the cycle,” he explained.

Head coach Carlo Ancelotti pointed out that the friendlies against Australia and India represent an opportunity to call up new players to the national team and highlighted the importance of the connection between the Seleção’s different age groups.

“With these three friendlies, we will begin the new cycle to shape the national team for the goals of the coming years, which are the 2028 Copa América and the 2030 World Cup. We will use these three friendlies to call up new players to the national team, especially young ones, who can show their talent with the national team in the coming years,” he said.

“Integration with the youth categories and evaluation of the work at U-15, U-17, and U-20 level are very important. We have to keep in mind that, four years ago, Rayan was playing for the U-17s, and he became a very important player. We need to have a good connection with the U-20s and also make the most of the preparation for the next Olympics, where many players could, in theory, be at the 2030 World Cup,” he added.

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