It is the itch that England have struggled to scratch. Rarely do they get very much from Brazil; their record in games with them is worse than that against any other opponent and it was a night when things got worse, adding a worry line or two to Gareth Southgate’s brow.
It was meant to be different, a friendly to fine-tune for the European Championship in the summer, even as Southgate missed key players – most notably the captain Harry Kane, Luke Shaw and Bukayo Saka. Brazil had been portrayed as being in crisis, the new manager, Dorival Júnior, warning that he did not have a magic wand. By the end, it looked as though he did.
