Well, did we all enjoy that? After Varane opened the scoring, and with Brazil looking horrendous defending set-pieces, you didn’t really see the ‘Selecao’ getting too much joy this evening. But they look a different beast now and worked their way patiently into the game, scoring a lovely equaliser through Oscar, another fine goal via Neymar and a rather more set-piece-tastic one from Luiz Gustavo. They thoroughly deserved their win against a French side that wasn’t *bad* but didn’t really do enough despite looking bright and quick on occasion. To make it all the more fun, there were no substitutions until the last 16 minutes. So I enjoyed that and hope you all did too. Thanks for your emails, and for reading, and a very good night to you.
Full-time: France 1-3 Brazil
How about that?
90+4 min: “Surely 4 minutes added on is even, if anything,” quips Alys Barber-Rogers, and as I promised correspondents they’d be published I reproduce her joke here.
90+3 min: France have carried on gamely but Brazil, to be fair, have managed this out quite nicely.
90+2 min: Oh, and another. Marcelo for Elias. Okay, this game has actually been really good but I think we can call it a day now.
90+1 min: Four minutes to be added on, which seems slightly odd.
90 min: Another change for Brazil, which would usually bring them up to intensely bothersome numbers by now but they’ve left it so late that it, happily, has no real impact on the game. On comes Fernandinho, off goes Luiz Gustavo.
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88 min: Kondogbia, who is a wonderful player, marauds down the left and almost goes through three players as he looks to forage infield. Then Fekir does something rather more effective, cutting in to shoot only just wide of the far post with his left foot!
Firmino goes off in the meantime and Luiz Adriano comes on.
86 min: And Fekir now, in his first real action, goes down a bit easily under a Filipe Luis challenge – looked like a good feint and a foul though – and he doesn’t get a free kick either.
Brazil make another change, the excellent Oscar departing and Souza entering.
85 min: Schneiderlin is probably fouled by Danilo by the left byline but tumbles a bit too dramatically and nothing is given.
84 min: Another Evra cross causes a few butterflies inside the area, almost falling for Matuidi, but Brazil get it away.
Brazil make their first change now, Douglas Costa replacing former Shakhtar team-mate Willian. For France, Olivier Giroud comes on for Matuidi.
82 min: Another French change now, Dimitri Payet coming on for Valbuena, whose effectiveness waned. Brazil are yet to make a substitution.
81 min: Evra does put in a dangerous low ball though and Luiz Gustavo hacks away. Then Benzema almost gets lucky with a ricochet that gives him a sight inside the area, but Thiago Silva is there first.
80 min: Lovely turn by Danilo, who heads for the box and tries for a one-two with Neymar, who can’t complete it. Brazil look comfortable.
78 min: Brazil, who started with plenty of possession but little incision, have looked increasingly classy and confident on the ball as this has gone on. They deserve their lead, and it’s unlike anything we saw in the summer from them. After another such move, Neymar runs past Schneiderlin and gets a shot away but the ball bobbles as he kicks it, maybe, and flies over.
76 min: France have a free-kick in a good position on the left. Valbuena takes it, once again, but it’s beyond everybody and he hasn’t quite recaptured the accuracy of those deliveries from early in the first half.
74 min: Here come our first changes and they’re interesting. Remember Nabil Fekir, profiled at the top of the show? He comes on for Griezmann. And Geoffrey Kondogbia, scourge of Arsenal, comes on for Sissoko. France freshening things up.
73 min: Neymar overcooks a ball for Filipe Luis but the left-back still gets a cross in. Mandanda takes it.
72 min: Four goals and we still have not seen a single substitution. Hold this close.
71 min: Almost four! Willian takes on Sakho, down the left this time, and Mandanda has to save with his legs. Another corner, which Sakho defends properly.
Goal! France 1-3 Brazil (Luiz Gustavo 69)
...From the corner it’s 3-1! It’s put in from the right, an outswinger, and Luiz Gustavo runs off his man – Varane perhaps – to plant a totally unopposed downward header into the net! It’s not dissimilar to Varane’s goal from earlier and it’s a piece of absolutely negligent set-piece defending from the French this time.
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68 min: And nor has Sagna, but now he checks rather unnecessarily when found on the edge of the area and floats in a harmless ball with his left foot. Shortly afterwards he gets another chance to cross but dithers again, Filipe Luis getting in the way.
Then a really slick break from Brazil! It ends with Neymar finding Oscar, who looks to measure a shot to Mandanda’s left from the edge of the area and it’s turned behind! But then....
66 min: Evra has not got forward too often but now he does, before being halted by a well-timed challenge from Thiago Silva by the corner flag.
65 min: Dangerous ball from Filipe Luis after good work from Oscar and Firmino, and Evra has to flick it away from the waiting Willian.
63 min: France’s fans, to their credit, are still in full voice and holding scarves aloft. We might get some pretty special atmospheres next summer. And they nearly have cause to completely lose it as Griezmann comes to life, holding off two challenges and firing in a superb 25-yard left footer that Jefferson is at full stretch to tip over!
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62 min: Do keep emailing though. We’ll need something to do when it all slows down. You’ll be published.
62 min: It’s a really good game now. I hope the managers can hold off on the subs for a little while.
60 min: Nearly an immediate response from the hosts – three times! Another Valbuena set piece goes past a host of players before Thiago Silva, with Varane lurking, diverts the ball just wide of his own goal. The resulting corner is never quite cleared properly and eventually the ball comes to Sissoko at the far post, with Jefferson coming out to block sharply. And still France come! Straightaway Valbuena puts in a delicious ball from the left and Benzema, running onto it inside the box, should surely score with his volley – but it flashes high and wide!!
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Goal! France 1-2 Brazil (Neymar 57)
That’s why he’s their talisman. Willian nips the ball away from Evra, sashays infield and bisects France’s centre-backs with a superb slide-rule pass to Neymar inside the area. He’s to the left of goal and at an angle but – thud – it’s blasted high above Mandanda and into the roof of the net! Another fine goal by Brazil.
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56 min: From the corner, Firmino leaps superbly to outjump Schneiderlin and Thiago Silva is not at all far from diverting it into the net.
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55 min: Oscar tries for a repeat of his goal, bursting towards the box and this time going for the exchange with Neymar, but it’s cut out. Sakho then has to concede a corner though as Willian looks to feed Elias....
54 min: Vital challenge from Sakho after Firmino, not for the first time, seeks to feed Willian in acres of room.
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53 min: A few players have slipped over out there tonight and Sissoko is the latest, but France keep the ball, which is something they’ve done far better since the break.
51 min: But now we see Brazil! Elias capitalises on a mistake on the right of the France box and the ball ends up with Luiz Gustavo 20 yards out. His shot is well struck and Mandanda has to parry away. Good save, although one he’d expect to make.
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49 min: Then Valbuena stands one up for Benzema in open play but again Jefferson claims. France have come out brightly though, and as I write this Danilo has to react smartly to tackle Benzema after Griezmann plays him in.
48 min: No threat from this set-piece – Valbuena’s delivery is far too close to Jefferson. Often hard to find a good angle when putting a cross in from a central position like that.
47 min: Fast-ish start by France, with Benzema marauding menacingly and feeding Griezmann to his left, but his cross is headed away. Then Sissoko tries a burst of his own midway inside the Brazil half and is felled by Elias.....
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Peeeeeeeeeeep! France kick off this time, just for a change
Let’s watch.
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The teams are back out! Will this one go the distance or will it fizzle out amid a rash of substitutions? None yet....
With thanks to Paul Roche, here are Sean Bean and La Marseillaise:
Half-time: France 1-1 Brazil
Not the worst of friendly halves. The scoreline is fair, Brazil having looked more threatening as the half went on after a rocky start in which they looked dodgy at set pieces and conceded to Varane’s header. The Selecao have dominated the possession and deserved Oscar’s lovely equaliser. France might be concerned that they haven’t fashioned a chance from open play yet.
45 min: Danilo bundles Valbuena over on the left and France, who have been under pressure, get some respite. This time the delivery isn’t his best and it’s cleared up into the air before Jefferson gathers.
43 min: That has set the stage for an interesting second half and I think it’s a fair reflection of the play. Brazil had kept trying to thread things through the eye of a needle in that central area just outside of the box and eventually their perseverance paid off.
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Goal! France 1-1 Brazil (Oscar 40)
Well, well, what a lovely goal that was! Oscar comes in from the left and flicks a ball inside to Firmino, through a defender’s legs. He carries on his run and Firmino, this time through the legs of Varane, finds him inside the penalty area. Oscar is being challenged by Sagna and needs to get something away quickly, and he does – sliding in to finish very cutely with the outside of his foot and level the scores out of nothing!
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39 min: Neymar takes a tumble, wants a free kick just outside the box, doesn’t get it. France recycle the ball but a patient move ends with Benzema, quiet since that early chance, giving the ball away.
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38 min: This one comes in from the right and again Varane, at the back stick, almost gets onto it – but the ball squirms out of play.
37 min: Willian finds a little space by the right byline and stands up a cross, but it’s not good enough to defeat Mandanda, who leaps up to collect. Miranda, at the other end, gives away another corner with a shockingly wayward backpass.
36 min: I used to have an orthodontist who looked like Didier Deschamps. In fact there, that’s something I did in 1998, go to the orthodontist sometimes. He’s aged a bit now – they both have, I imagine – but Deschamps is a vocal figure on the touchline here and has just been seen barking out the instructions to his defenders.
34 min: We have not seen much of Antoine Griezmann yet, although he did just spread a pass nicely enough to Evra. France yet to really create anything from open play but they do look quick and sharp on the counterattack.
Then Firmino tries to trick his way through before Varane, the last man, boots the ball onto him and over.
33 min: Brazil look a bit more threatening now and Elias finds Neymar, whose attempt at a backheel towards Firmino is ambitious to the point of pointlessness, as Firmino is nowhere near.
30 min: Oscar tries a clever free-kick, short to the edge of the box, but telegraphs it badly and France get it away. But! Brazil come back and Firmino ends up having a dig from 25 yards, which Mandanda has to dive to his right to turn away for a corner! Good effort there. The flag kick is cleared but Mandanda looks unconvincing when the ball is returned to the box, fumbling under the challenge of Thiago Silva before it’s booted clear.
29 min: Valbuena takes again and it’s another good delivery – this time Sakho gets up highest but can’t win the header cleanly, and it loops into Jefferson’s hands off a defender.
28 min: Neymar gets all wriggly in a vaguely threatening position but can’t sneak a pass through to Elias. Brazil are, apart from that Neymar chance just before the goal, finding it hard to get behind France and only rarely committing many men forward. Thiago Silva, in the meantime, gives away another corner after another quick counter...
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26 min: Peter Oh was, it turns out, in Brazil during the 1998 final so I shall allow him the floor for the following entertaining tale –
“In the summer of ’98 I was a graduate student research assistant in Salvador, Brazil, and watched the final in a crowded, rocking restaurant/bar near the old city square. There was a palpable air of expectation. After Zinedine Zidane’s head (twice!) and Emmanuel Petit had laid the festive atmosphere to waste and the shell-shocked crowd headed for the exits, I heard shouts of “They were paid off!” (presumably referring to sinister forces orchestrating a win for France) and one fuming young lady in front of me muttered “I’m gonna kill me a Frenchman!”. But once outside on the cobblestoned plaza, some of the gloom was dispersed by the legendary drum band Olodum going ahead with their planned performance despite the shattering loss.”
24 min: Neymar swaps passes with Oscar and heads for the area again, but this time Schneiderlin dispossesses him. France counter and a decent Sagna delivery is headed out by Thiago Silva.
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Goal! France 1-0 Brazil (Varane 21)
And that miss proves costly! France go straight down the other end and win a corner, which Valbuena puts in again from the left. Varane, looking far more determined in the aerial challenge than Miranda, attacks it strongly and thuds a header down to Jefferson’s left! Excellent header, but Brazil look ropey on set pieces here.
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20 min: Neymar comes close! He finds space just outside the area after a Schneiderlin error and runs inside the box but, in trying to weigh his shot past Mandanda, doesn’t quite get it right and the goalkeeper dives to his left to save well.
18 min: Now Brazil try to break at speed but Willian, head down, is robbed by Schneiderlin.
16 min: It’s cleared, and France’s attempts to counter founder upon a rather agricultural tackle on Valbuena from Filipe Luis.
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16 min: Brazil win a corner now, Neymar’s attempted through ball to Firmino taking a deflection and running behind...
15 min: Nothing is really happening at the moment, but Brazil are still popping it about pleasantly enough. That nearly results in Neymar charging down a Varane clearance, but the ball spins away.
13 min: Not a lot of pattern to this really. That Jefferson save was quite something – I’d already made to type “Goal!” – but apart from that it could be a World Cup game, with two sides feeling each other out early on.
11 min: Better now, though, as Neymar runs down the left before finding Firmino in space centrally. He has quite a bit of time for a shot and perhaps overthinks it in the end, striking from 22 yards but allowing Sakho to block.
10 min: Sakho gives away a throw-in under close attention from Firmino, but Brazil are yet to show too much here except for a couple of fairly harmless spells of passing.
8 min: ....taken by Valbuena from the left, and how is that not a goal?! It’s nodded on at the near post by Varane and Benzema, all alone at point blank range at the back post, must score! But goalkeeper Jefferson somehow extends a trailing hand and paws it away. Benzema could, should, have got more purchase on his header but what a save that is!
7 min: Luis Gustavo gives away a free-kick on the right and it’s swung in by Valbuena. Danilo heads behind – corner....
6 min: In case the jobbing guitarists out there were rather depressed by that Eugene’s Trick Bag video, Matt Dony hastens to add –
“Just to clear up, although Ralph Macchio learnt a lot of gee-tar for the role, he mimed that piece, and the actual fingering looks much less impressive. I miss the 90’s for so many reasons, not least of which is the fact that I had time to waste learning flashy pieces I couldn’t hope to play today. Also, I really dislike Neymar. Come on, France!”
5 min: Firmino’s first involvement is to rather undercook a pass towards Willian, who was in loads of space on the right. Evra picks it up.
4 min: In the meantime, Willian is down after a challenge with Matuidi. Might just have turned his ankle a bit but seems ok.
4 min: Charles Antaki is looking forward to seeing/saying Firmino.
“Thank heavens for Firmino. A Brazilian I’ve never heard of, who might play for an obscure club, be fantastic, and who has a pleasingly exotic name. In other words, not Fred, Jo, Bernard, Larry or Colin (all right, I made those last two up).”
3 min: Some good early possession for the Brazilians, finally snuffed out when Sagna sticks a foot in ahead of Oscar.
1 min: Neymar slips over early on when trying to get onto a crossfield ball. Then Filipe Luis, backing up, does the same.
Peeeeeep! Now we are off. Brazil do the honours.
Enjoy.
A minute’s silence now, after the tragic air disaster that occurred on Tuesday.
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Before that, Matt Dony gives us his snapshot of a bygone time:
“I remember clearly watching the 1998 final with a guitar on my lap, learning the guitar-onanism-tastic Eugene’s Trick Bag from Crossroads. And, by ‘learning’, I mean ‘trying hard to learn by playing slowly and sloppily over and over again’. It never impressed people as much as I hoped it would. France deserved the win, and I was glad they won, but the Brazilian airport advert was magnificent.”
He means this:
A lusty-voiced French crowd belting out La Marseillaise is one of life’s pleasures. We’ve just enjoyed that, and now it’s time we got going....
Anyway, the teams are out in Paris! Flags are being waved, banners hoisted, and pray for Neymar silence now for the anthems.
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This is what Edward Chukwurah was doing then. Followed by what he’s doing now:
“I was a 7-year-old in Lagos, Nigeria, finally falling in love with the beautiful game - I was enthralled by Zidane and by Thuram in the semifinal against Croatia. I rooted for France, and would go on to become an Arsenal fan.
“Right now I’m 24, in Chicago, and frantically seeking work as a statistician (I qualify this email as a shameless plug, by the way).”
Send Edward any job offers to the address above. When this game fizzles out in the second half we can at least be nice to each other.
So, do send your tweets and emails. What were you doing on That Balmy Summer’s Night In ‘98? What are you doing now?
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This was another exciting game between Brazil and France.
And this was a not-very-exciting game between Brazil and France
A very interesting sub-plot in the France squad is the presence of Lyon’s Nabil Fekir on the bench. There’s been a lot of will-he-won’t-he over whether he represents France or Algeria – and this match won’t actually bind him to anything – so if you want to know why, look here:
The Brazil starting XI
OFFICIAL XI - Jefferson; Danilo, Thiago Silva, Miranda, Filipe Luís; Luiz Gustavo, Elias; Willian, Oscar; Firmino, Neymar.
— Seleção Brasileira (@BrazilStats) March 26, 2015
Danilo and Firmino are both in, as is Chelsea’s Filipe Luis. So, too, is Thiago Silva – for his first Brazil start since the World Cup!
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The France starting XI
La compo : Mandanda - Evra Sakho Varane Sagna - Matuiti Schneiderlin Sissoko - Griezmann Benzema (c) Valbuena #FRABRE pic.twitter.com/XnDfoho0te
— Equipe de France (@equipedefrance) March 26, 2015
Notable for starts given to Schneiderlin and, at full-back, old stagers Evra and Sagna. Karim Benzema is captain.
Nice email from Admir Pajic to kick us off here. What exactly do France have over Brazil?
“If there is ‘Angstgeigner’ (yes, it’s basically ‘a jinx team’ in English but allow me to be a bit pompous) for Brazil, it’s France. They have been responsible for three out of last six big Brazilian defeats at World Cup (1986, 1998, 2006). Even if Zidane was responsible for two of those, I’ve always thought of that French domination over the Brazilians as of the domination of Lizarazus (= hard-working players who do their job in the defence quietly and don’t get enough praise just because they don’t score one preposterous free-kick out of million attempts like Roberto Carlos) over, er, Roberto Carloses.”
Let's party like it's 1998!
That’s what you’re thinking, right? Zidane’s headers, Petit’s late goal, Ronaldo’s (the fat one! Not CR7! LOL) blackout, Arsenal winning the World Cup, Brazil going missing in every conceivable way, the last rites for a classic among World Cup theme tunes. Yes, it’s France v Brazil and it’s at the Stade de France – with enough “going on” to make this more than your common or garden friendly.
Every day’s a schoolday for France at the moment, with their “ghost” presence in the Euro 2016 qualifiers offering some useful competitive-ish preparation for the tournament they’re hosting and certainly keeping them honest. A 1-1 home draw with Albania – who were most definitely treating the game like a qualifier – proved the point and there have also been useful workouts from the likes of Serbia and Armenia. They have beaten Spain and Sweden since the World Cup too. If Brazil are feeling it then this will be another big test and, as we’ll see, there may be an interesting name or two to conjure with as the night unfolds.
France are unbeaten in six games since their World Cup quarter-final defeat to Germany. Brazil? Brazil are on what one resigns oneself to see being called “flames” at the moment. Six consecutive wins since that humiliation at the end of the summer, and if you’re wondering whether they flat-tracked themselves back to happiness then you couldn’t be more wrong – among those victories was an excellent 2-0 win over Argentina in October, played in Beijing. Neymar is back, albeit in slightly lower-key fashion than last summer, and exciting talents such as Porto right-back Danilo and Hoffenheim’s Roberto Firmino are coming to the fore. Dunga is freshening this side up and it might just be that Brazil’s chastening experience nine months or so back prompted a few much-needed changes.
Or it might not. Brazil used a heck of a lot of different players at the best of times. But come with me and see. Just like this guy back when this fixture was cool, you won’t want to miss a thing.
Nick will be here shortly.
