Healthy Mbappe scores as France defeat Brazil

It could hardly be a more interesting friendly match than between France and Brazil in the USA, ahead of the World Cup.

The mere strength of the opponents was enough for people to switch on the TV and watch this football giants playing against each other.

Didier Deschamps’ men are touring America and even stayed in the same hotel where they will be based during the competition.

Both teams had their injury/suspension troubles, but Brazil was more affected by it. Carlo Ancelotti couldn’t count on Marquinhos, Alisson, Bruno Guimaraes, Rodrygo, Gabriel and Eder Militao.

On the other side was Kylian Mbappe, who started the game, scored the first goal and player for one hour, after all these reports which stated that he had problems with his knee and that Real treated the wrong leg.

Brazil lost 2-1 even thou they had one man more on the field for over half an hour. France was clearly better and even scored the second goal when they were already with 10 men, after Upamecano’s red card.

The fact that the Brazilians, the famous technicians had less possession than the French, clearly says it all.

For now, the World Cup 2022 finalists are clearly a better team and Carlo Ancelotti will have a lot of word to do until June.

The first half was not an interesting one, mainly due to the fact that both teams are strong and many players are teammates in their clubs so they know each other.

For the first half an hour we didn’t see anything, not even in a shot on target. France dominated possession but it was Arsenal’s Martinelli who had the first serious chance in the 27th minute after Dembele lost possession, but he only managed to shoot near the post.

Five minutes later, it was France who broke the deadlock when Dembele’s deep pass through the middle found Mbappe who was too quick for Brazil’s defense.

Everything else in the first half was just half-chances from both teams, with players either shooting off target, or being too selfish to pass to a teammate who was in a better position to shoot.

Brazil started the second half much better and after one of their attacks in the 52nd minute, Wesley went down under a challenge from Upamecano.

The Bayern Munich defender made a clumsy attack as the last man in defense and VAR quickly alerted the referee, who changed his decision and gave Upamecano a red card.

The consequences of this decision? Second goal for France! Instead of really pushing for it, the Brazilians allowed to be caught in a counter attack in the 65th minute.

This time it was an Olise-Ekitike combo and the Liverpool striker finished with ease. But finally Brazil managed to do something with one man more on the field and scored in the 78th minute.

It started with a free kick near the penalty area and after a ping-pong reaction in the box, Luis Henrique passed the ball to untouched Bremer, who had no trouble scoring. The Sankt Petersburg forward had a good opportunity in the 90th minute, but his shot went just near the post.