BRAZIL had a good chance with Les Bleus in their last defeat to England.
Chelsea stars David Luiz, Ramires and Oscar were lined up for brutal banter on the pitch after teammate Frank Lampard took home the winner for a Three Lions team that also included Gary Cahill and Ashley Cole.
And former Stamford Bridge manager Luiz Felipe Scolari made an unfortunate return to London as coach of the first Brazilian team to be beaten by England in 23 years.
Everything could have been different if Ronaldinho had converted a handball penalty against Jack Wilshere.
But the 32-year-old former Barcelona star saw his set piece through Joe Hart and seven minutes later Wayne Rooney gave England the lead.
The visitors struck back shortly after the break, when Fred, the Fluminense striker who had come on as a substitute at half-time, took advantage of a mistake by Gary Cahill.
But another substitute, England’s Lampard, dominated the game with a shot from the edge of the pitch on the hour mark.
In addition to the Chelsea trio, there are some other Premier League players in Brazil’s starting XI.
Another member of the eleven would go on to play for Tottenham, as would one of the substitutes.
And two players ended up in jail. Here’s how Brazil ranks:
The Brazilian goalkeeper arrived as part of QPR’s spending spree in 2012 and with a great pedigree. In 2010 with Inter Milan, José Mourinho won Serie A, the Coppa Italia, the Super Cup, the Champions League and the Club World Cup, in addition to the last four Scudettos.
But the Hoops were relegated and Cesar was excluded, taking advantage of a loan spell at Toronto FC before his contract expired in 2014.
He then won 3 Portuguese titles in a row with Benfica before completing his career in Brazil with Flamengo. He won the 2004 Copa America with Brazil and played 87 caps in total.
The 40-year-old former full-back was found guilty in February 2024 of raping a woman in the bathroom of a Barcelona nightclub in December 2022. He was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison and ordered to pay his victim almost £130,000 in damages.
Alves’ legal team said he would appeal his conviction. Barcelona removed it from the “Legends” segment of its website, only to fix it a few days later.
Before his fall from grace, he was one of the most successful players in football history, winning titles with Juventus and PSG after eight remarkable seasons with Barca.
The indispensable centre-back has won titles in three countries, with Benfica in Portugal. Luiz won the Champions League, Europa League and FA Cup in his first spell at Chelsea, and then returned to the Premier League and Europa League in his second spell.
In the meantime, he enjoyed good luck with Paris Saint-Germain and won the FA Cup again, this time with Arsenal, in 2020.
Now 36 years old and back in Brazil with Flamengo, he added to his honors the cup and the Copa Libertadores, the Sudamericana de CL, in 2022. He last played for Brazil in 2018.
The former Belgian league champion with Standard Liège made his senior international debut in this match, at the age of 29. It was a special year for the centre-back, as he won the Bundesliga, the German Cup, the Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup. Club Cup and World Cup with Bayern.
After a season at Wolfsburg, Dante moved to Nice and is still there, at the age of 40, as captain of the team owned by Manchester United’s new co-supremo, Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
His last match for Brazil was a 7-1 loss to Germany in the semifinals of the 2014 World Cup.
After two Spanish Cups and two UEFA Cups with Sevilla, the two-legged full-back moved to Barcelona.
There he won 14 trophies in six seasons, adding a treble of La Liga, Copa del Rey and Champions League in 2015, although he was not a regular starter in the first team.
Competition on both flanks of Alves and Marcelo’s Brazilian defence has limited him to just 17 overseas appearances. He is now 39 and retired in 2022 after a season in the Belgian top flight with Eupen.
A few months after that match, Tottenham broke their record for moves by signing the tough Corinthians midfielder for £17 million.
Paulinho joined an exodus to the Chinese Super League, whose money has a stir like Saudi Arabia’s Pro League. He won three titles with Guangzhou Evergrande, as well as a season in Barcelona where he won the double.
After a failed move to Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ahli, he returned to Corinthians, although a knee ligament injury appears to have ended his career at the age of 35.
Like his England teammates, the dynamic midfielder is a Stamford Bridge legend, most notably in the 2012 Champions League semi-final against Barcelona.
In the second leg, he defied a yellow card that ruled him out of the final through suspension to put in a Roy Keane-esque performance and score before Fernando Torres made Gary Neville groan.
He won every trophy with Chelsea and then headed to the Chinese Super League. He returned to Brazil to end his career at Palmeiras in 2020 when he was still just 33 years old.
The long-toothed artist, now 43, was back in Brazil at the time, but had already done enough damage to England with the chance of a free-kick in the 2002 World Cup quarter-final clash.
The Barcelona, AC Milan and PSG star remains the player who has won the World Cup, Copa America, Confederations Cup, Champions League, Copa Libertadores and Ballon d’Or.
Penalized in Paraguay in 2020 when he and his brother entered Paraguay with false passports, he temporarily cheered his team on to the criminal futsal championship.
Less than 4 months after that match, it was announced that he would move to Barcelona. He enjoyed 4 fabulous seasons at the Camp Nou but shocked football by joining Paris Saint-Germain for a payment that still stands at a world record of £200 million.
Neymar has won a lot in France, but a lack of Champions League glory, injuries and ego conflicts have altered his fate. In September 2023, he became the most expensive signing in the Saudi Pro League to date by joining Al Hilal for a maximum of £77 million. , with a reported salary of £130 million per season.
He tore his ACL while on duty overseas after just five games with his new club. He’s still only 32 years old, but he’s already Brazil’s all-time top scorer with 79 goals in 178 appearances.
A prolific goalscorer but who has never played for one of Europe’s biggest clubs. He earned a reputation as a bad boy in his first stint at Sao Paulo, most notably for kicking a River Plate player in the neck in a Copa Libertadores clash in 2003.
His most productive days were in Seville, where he won two Copa del Rey and two UEFA Cups alongside Wembley teammate Adriano.
After scoring goals in a second spell at Sao Paulo, he also went in search of money to China in 2016. He started all five matches of Brazil’s Copa America in 2004 and scored 28 goals in forty-five overseas appearances.
He won two Premier Leagues, a League Cup and a Europa League with the Blues without ever living up to his potential. Doubts about his preference for playing top-flight football arose when he also left for China in 2017, when he was just 25 years old, even though a salary of £400,000 a week would make anyone’s head spin. However, Oscar broke a trend by staying in China all those years despite all the scandals, currency problems, and the long pandemic shutdown. He captained the port of Shanghai in the season opener earlier this month.
(for Luis Fabiano, rest)
The striker scored at 3. 17 seconds for América Mineiro in 2005, one of the fastest goals of all time.
(for Ramires, rest)
It is the defensive midfielder’s fourth and final international appearance.
(for Ronaldinho, rest)
He became a Spurs fan favorite, scoring the dramatic late goal against Ajax that sent them to the 2019 Champions League final.
(for Paulinho, 62)
He had good luck in Brazil but never played in Europe. It’s time for six appearances abroad.
(for Adriano, 70 years old)
Part of Atletico’s emergence as a major powerhouse, he lasted one season at Chelsea before returning to Madrid.
(for David Luis, 79)
Like Filipe Luis, he won his first trophies with Atletico and reached the 2014 Champions League final.
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