World Cup 2026: The real Brazil remains to be seen

Philadelphia’s yellow painted Brazil fans poured into the city in their tens of thousands.

There were many ticketless fans who had traveled long distances to watch the game on television in bars, happy to see their heroes in the same city playing on the World Cup stage.

As Ancelotti struck a defiant tone in his post-match press conference, the first question was whether this was an improvement against Morocco, but what didn’t they like about the game?

“We were much better in the first half. In the second half, they didn’t have a little bit of control, but we had more chances to score. Overall, it was a good game,” said the Italian, who will end Brazil’s bid for a sixth World Cup in May 2025.

It was followed by a question about Manchester United’s Cunha: After scoring twice against Haiti, will he remain in a central attacking role for next Wednesday’s game against Scotland in Miami?

“We’ll see,” added the Italian.

“I think Mathias’s position was a good position to cause problems on defense. And he checked the ball very well, and that position is a good position to be effective up front.

“It could be an option. We discussed this yesterday. I don’t want a clear identity, maybe we will change this in the next match.”

Talk about tactics and then Vinicius Jr. – who now has six goals in six World Cup games (three goals, three assists) – after Ancelotti answered one more question about his performance.

“That was my expectation for this match,” he said.

“Compared to Morocco, there were fewer mistakes, more efficiency going forward, this was a good match.”

Speaking about the next game against Scotland, Ancelotti added: “We don’t think about letting[Scotland]down, we think about playing well and improving and we will analyze the game.”

If we can get to the top of the group this will be important in the future so we want to prepare well for that game.

“Scotland can cause problems. They caused problems against Morocco. And so we have to focus on the game and stay calm and work to improve.”