I haven't watched today's training yet, but it was streamed a short while ago, they started at 3pm in London (match is at 4pm local time on Saturday).
Today's press conference was with Alex Sandro and Vitor Roque: Today's training session: I usually just read the articles (generally on ge) to get the summaries of the press conferences, don't watch all of them, but I did watch some of Andrey's and would say he makes a good impression for a young kid, even through some of the generic responses. He also didn't want to answer in English when he didn't have to, but his English is ok, though still behind a thick accent.
Brazil are considering two friendlies before the World Cup, one in Brazil and one after traveling to the US. Norway is one of the possible opponents: https://ge.globo.com/futebol/seleca...ia-amistoso-com-a-noruega-antes-da-copa.ghtml All of this will depend on the draw, held on December 5.
“Se eu fosse o treinador do Brasil, o Brasil seria invencível.” - Egil Olsen. “A ciência em campo.” – Revista Placar, Edição Especial, Copa do Mundo de 1998, referindo-se à Noruega de Egil Olsen During a 1997 which Brazil won most of its matches and drew a few, with that historic 3-3 against Italy in Tournoi de France, the 1997 Copa América and 1997 Confeds titles, the one game Brazil lost was a friendly against Norway. It was quite a shock at that time to see the defending World Cup champions get scored on 4 times. Romário and Ronaldo were on the roster. And then Brazil drew Norway for Group A in France ’98. That manager of theirs was quite a character and came across as very arrogant in Brazil because of that statement, but after Norway beat Brazil 2-1 in 1998, he was grinning broadly post-match. That Revista Placar story pointed to a Norway deployed in a 4-5-1 system, still uncommon back then. Olsen, it turned out, was a detailed-oriented coach who knew that Norwegian players were not the world’s best and therefore he researched the best ways to use his players to yield maximum results. The fact that Norway under Olsen beat Brazil twice in two matches shows that his system worked at least to an extent. 27 years later, if we play them again, it won’t be a weak Norway. They are tops in their UEFA WC qualifying group, having gone 7 for 7. They do have a certain dude named Haaland e esse cara até que joga bastante bola. Brazil is getting some very tough tests now – Senegal, Tunisia, and potentialy Norway. Trial by fire before the World Cup next year. But this is what Brazil needs if it is to have any realistic chances to win the title in 2026.
Looks like Eder Militão is a right-back option after all, or at least will be tested there. And Ederson will be the starter. Both are surprises to me, but I think it's good he's testing Ederson, since Bento isn't playing much and Hugo Souza doesn't inspire confidence in me, but with only one more call-up left, it's not likely we'll see other tests. Ederson, Éder Militão, Marquinhos, Gabriel Magalhães ,Alex Sandro; Casemiro, Bruno Guimarães; Estêvão, Matheus Cunha, Vini Jr, Rodrygo https://ge.globo.com/futebol/seleca...entar-senegal-veja-a-provavel-escalacao.ghtml In the US the match should be on BeIn sports (and BeIn in Espanol).
Gabriel Magalhães, who left yesterday's match injured in the second half, is confirmed out. No replacement called in. (Besides Marquinhos and Éder Militão, Danilo and Fabricio Bruno are available as central defenders). https://ge.globo.com/futebol/seleca...icada-e-e-cortado-da-selecao-brasileira.ghtml
By the way, if you haven't seen the match, a Senegalese station has the whole thing on youtube: For the goals: 1hr 29mins 20s for the first one - the broadcast is showing a replay, so you don't get most of the play until the replays for the goal 1hr 36mins 55s for the second one
The France and Croatia friendlies should be confirmed after tomorrow's Tunisia match. France and Croatia confirmed their World Cup qualification this week. Reportedly, the new uniforms will also debut during the March matches: https://ge.globo.com/futebol/seleca...amistosos-com-franca-e-croacia-em-marco.ghtml The blue jersey leaked (see picture above and the article below) and is what would have been the red jersey. Supposedly it was red because of "brasa" as slang for Brazil (the inside of the collar has a "vai Brasa" motto). The yellow jersey has not leaked yet. https://www.footyheadlines.com/2025/06/brazil-2026-away-kit.html Note: the image with Neymar is a mock-up. The leak is lower down on the page.
No official indication of the line-up for tomorrow. The one thing Ancelotti has said is that Wesley will start on the right and Militão will start with Marquinhos on defense. He has said João Pedro, Luciano Juba and Vitor Roque are likely to see minutes, but did not say how many and if they would start or sub in. I don't think he mentioned Fabinho but of course a lot of reporters and pundits are still wondering if he'll get the start. Paulo Henrique had a stomach bug and didn't train today, according to TNT's reporting. https://ge.globo.com/futebol/seleca...-da-selecao-brasileira-contra-a-tunisia.ghtml
This is definitely good news. France is one of the last two World Cup champions and they came very close to a third title in 2022. Croatia was runner-up in 2018 and they are responsible for Tite's Brazil missing out on the semifinals that year. I haven't watched them closely, but they qualified for the World Cup undefeated. A good test for Ancelotti's Brazil. As for Croatia, yes, it'll be a good test for the team and a chance for further growth... and an opportunity for a small dose of payback.
Good news for Endrick, he probably will start a lot for Lyon: https://www.uol.com.br/esporte/colunas/mercado-da-bola/2025/11/18/real-clausula-endrick-lyon.htm Unless he gets injured, or does so poorly that Lyon is willing to pay the alternative cost, he gets at least 25 starts based on the loan agreement. Next year Lyon will have 21 league matches left, 2 Europa League group matches and up to 11 more if they make the playoffs, and 1 to 6 cup matches depending on how far they go. That's only 24 guaranteed matches and the loan agreement stipulates he should start 25. Of course, if they make the next round of the Cup, or the Europa League, that's at least 1 or 2 more. Potentially, they could have 38 matches before the World Cup.
A few players back from injury today. Of course, who knows what will happen between now and March, but of course I hope they'll all be available then too. Alisson started for Liverpool. They are on an awful streak though and lost 3x0 at home to Nottingham Forest (Murilo scored the first goal and Igor Jesus had a disallowed goal). Raphinha got 10+ minutes for Barcelona when the win was already safely in hand. Vanderson played about 20+ minutes off the bench for Monaco and had the assist on Monaco's only goal in a 4x1 defeat.
Martinelli was on the bench today, but did not play. Arsenal totally dominated Tottenham, who only scored on a shot by Richarlison from almost the halfway line. Nice goal, worth checking out, but that was about all there was to his game or there offense today. Alex (Lille) and Douglas Santos still out this weekend. Bremer is expected to be out into December.
The friendlies with France and Croatia are still the plan for March, but there is the matter of the draw first. Croatia can end up in Brazil's group (France cannot, of course, because Brazil and France are Pot 1 teams). If we do get Croatia (which is roughly a 10% chance, since there are 10 pot 1 teams we can draw), then CBF will schedule the friendly with another European team outfitted by Nike, for March. We can expect friendlies to be announced some time after the draw: https://www.espn.com.br/futebol/sel...a-para-fugir-croacia-confirmar-amistoso-marco Also, the home jersey (yellow) has leaked (the away blue leaked a while back). The yellow is a little better but still not the same yellow as it used to be, still a bit more highlighter yellow: https://ge.globo.com/futebol/futebo...agens-do-uniforme-da-copa-do-mundo-2026.ghtml
HERE ARE THE GROUPS. Of course Morocco who surprised the world in the last cup making it to the semifinals are our toughest opponent, and whoever wins that match will probably win the group
Some conversation about the draw here as well: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/world-cup-2026-draw.2137148/ Those prices are actually lower than what I've seen. Let's see what happens with the next lottery (December 11) but I expect them to just go up from now on. As for Militão, let's see what the diagnosis is. I'll open a thread for Seleção 2026 in January, maybe I should open it with a prayer...