England began this friendly pushing Brazil back with some good pressing, and they won several early free-kicks without making any tangible chance. In the 9th minute it was Brazil that had the first shot on target, with Rodrygo bringing Jordan Pickford into the action with a comfortable save.

Three minutes later and England had a lucky let-off as a through ball catches out the defence and with Pickford well out of his area and in no-man's land. Vinicius Junior beat the goalkeeper with a soft shot, but that enabled Kyle Walker to easily clear the ball away from goal. The Brazilian should have scored though and it was a bad miss. It was pretty obvious by now that the visitors had targeted both Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham in particularly as every time those two gained possession they were fouled. Ironically, it was Bellingham who gained the first booking, and his appeal to the referee fell on deaf ears.

In another attack Vinicus went down in the box trying to claim a penalty, and then Lucus Paqueta set up Rodrygo, who fired his shot wide. Again, he might have done better with his finish. On 18 minutes England finally created something and Ollie Watkins shot over from close range following good work by Bellingham, but the striker was put off by a late touch from a defender. A minute later, Walker had to go off having felt something go in his leg earlier, he was replaced by Ezri Konsa, coming on for an England debut. A flurry of attacks followed from England with first Declan Rice seeing a cross shot pushed away by goalkeeper Bento, and then Ben Chilwell won a corner, and from that he fired a shot way over the crossbar.

Good attacks from England then saw Foden body checked and then Anthony Gordon, making a promising debut, won a corner. Chilwell again shot over from that. Further fouls on Bellingham went unpunished with no yellow cards shown to Brazilians by a lenient referee. Watkins and Gordon combined but the danger was cleared and then, finally Paqueta was given a yellow card for his umpteenth foul this time on John Stones.

The general pattern of play in the first half-hour was England's laboured build-up creating little, whilst the best chances were coming from dangerous fast Brazilian breakaways. In fact, on 35 minutes they hit the post with one of those quick raids as Paqueta's shot came in with the England defence all over the place at the time. At the other end, Gordon's shot was deflected wide before Foden's shot was saved easily by the keeper. When England do break quickly, the Brazilians to a man stop the move with a foul. Paqueta was so lucky not to receive a second yellow for yet another callous foul on Bellingham.

On 41 minutes England had their best effort as Gordon curled in a shot that was saved at full stretch by Bento. Then, as the game flowed from end to end, Harry Maguire almost made a disastrous error, losing control and being robbed of possession by Raphinha, who really should have scored. Before the break Bellingham was again crudely taken out again whilst Rice's corner just needed a touch at the far post, but that came from a defender who put the ball out for a corner.

At the break Brazil should have been ahead as they had the best chances, but England kept battling on and early in the second-half Maguire could have done better from yet another England corner. Both Stones and Bellingham put in fruitless goal attempts in the early minutes of the half and it was noticeable that both teams were trying hard not to concede the first goal. Bellingham then went down with cramp after a headed chance, and that heralded the usual raft of substitutions from Gareth Southgate. Off went Bellingham, Chilwell and Maguire, and on came Jarrod Bowen, Joe Gomez and Lewis Dunk. Bowen's first action saw him make a fine run down the right before a defender took him out.

More subs followed, Kobbie Mainoo came on for a debut, replacing the ineffective Conor Gallagher, and Marcus Rashford replaced the impressive Gordon. Southgate's switch of Foden inside did not work at all, and the Manchester City star hardly had a touch in the second-half. There was only ever going to be one goal in this match and in the 80th minute it was Brazil that scored. Again the England defence was caught out by a through ball but Pickford got down well to block Vinicius's shot, but the ball ran kindly for 17-year-old Endrick to tap in from close range. It looked for all the world to be offside, twice in fact, first from the through ball, and then after Pickford's save, but the wonderful VAR saw nothing wrong and the goal stood, much to the emotional joy of the young scorer.

After the goal Brazil kept possession to frustrate England. Rashford added nothing to the attack and only Bowen looked as though he could create something. But, alas, it wasn't to be and yet another drab Wembley game ended in home disappointment. Brazil might have rubbed salt into the wound right at the end but Pickford's feet came to the rescue as yet another quick break caught England out.

My notebook had one last entry, Referee and Linesman 1 England 0.

Lots of work to be done on this England team, with a bit more positivity being the order of the day. Good performances by Gordon and Konsa when he came on but lessons need to be learned. Belgium up next, should be fun.
  

Source Notes