The Indian football team’s friendly against five-time world champions Brazil ended with a 4-0 scoreline in favour of the visitors at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan on Saturday, but Selecao boss Carlo Ancelotti praised the Indian team for being organised and making it difficult for them to score their opening goal.
Brazil are currently the world’s 6th ranked team while India are languishing in 138th spot. Despite that, Brazil only opened the scoring in the 28th minute, through a goal from Estevao. Then, the floodgates opened. A goal from Pedro ensured the teams went to the half-time break with Brazil leading 2-0. Samuel Lino scored a second half brace to complete the rout.
“India played their part well. They tried to play their game; they defended, they were organised, they tried to play counter-attack. I think that they played a good game. We had difficulty opening the score, but the moment we opened the score with Estevão, we had more opportunities to control the game better,” Ancelotti said at the post-match press conference. “We feel good. It was a good experience. I think it was a good game, entertaining, with good intensity, and India did their part.”
Talking about his own team, Ancelotti said: “I think we defended well. We could have defended better if we had a couple of chances in the counter-attack, but I think for us it’s important not to concede a goal. Obviously we have to improve some mechanisms in defence, but we had a new defence that never played together, so maybe not everything was perfect. Again, the message is that we are happy to be here. We tried to do our best; we tried to show our best quality to all the people who love Brazil and love football, and I hope they enjoyed the night.”