England Scrape an Undeserved Point at the Maracana

A late Paulinho stunner silenced England’s premature celebrations after the visitors were in front for merely three minutes.

The game started as one might expect; the more stylish, the more extravagant, and, more importantly, the more match-fit Brazilians controlled the possession in the earlier stages, spraying the ball around the park very nicely. 

The little trio of Neymar, Hulk and Oscar were combining well around the England penalty area, which resulted in a few chances for Brazil, including an opportunity for Neymar, whose attempted bicycle kick was blocked.

The Barcelona-bound forward was a problem for the England defense throughout; his silky dribbling was just spellbinding at times, and Glen Johnson was a sucker for it all night long, especially when Neymar managed to slip past the Liverpool fullback and force goalkeeper Joe Hart into making a smart stop to deny him.

The England number one certainly had a busy night, also having to deal with attempts from Neymar again, Thiago Silva, Dani Alves and Oscar, but he managed to deal with them comfortably enough.

So far, England definitely hadn’t been at the races, and Brazil were opening them up time and time again. Zenit St Petersburg’s Hulk had a couple of chances himself, but failed to hit the target on both occasions.

A chance finally came for England; it fell to Arsenal forward Theo Walcott, who only managed to hit it straight at Julio Cesar, the only real work the QPR keeper had had to do so far.

Frank Lampard also had a pop minutes later, but like Walcott, couldn’t direct his effort out of Cesar’s way.

The half-time whistle blew with Roy Hodgson wondering what on earth had quite happened to his England team so far.

The game restarted, and not much seemed to have changed. A few substitutions, but England still couldn’t seem to gain a foothold in the match, and Brazil continued to dominate.

One of the first major events of the half was when Hulk found himself through on goal, but a good use of pace from James Milner allowed him to make the tackle and get the ball away to safety.

Minutes later however, a beautiful long-range effort from midfielder Hernanes smacked against the crossbar, and fell at Fred’s feet. Alarmingly, no England player had tracked his run, and the visitors could only watch as he tucked away the rebound. Shoddy defending from England.

The goal gave England life, and their attack surged forwards to get the equaliser. Milner was unlucky, when he went past two defenders to get into a goalscoring position, and his shot was blocked.

England were finally getting into the game now, and Wayne Rooney’s header went just wide of the post. You just got the slightest feeling that a goal was coming.

And it did. After some nice link-up play, substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain took his shot early, and it flew into the bottom corner from 20 yards. England were back in it. Undeserved, but still back in it.

Brazil’s spark had slightly waned, and they were starting to become slightly rash in possession. Substitute Lucas Moura blazed an effort over the bar, which was a sign of Brazil’s obvious frustration. They shouldn’t have been drawing. They’d outplayed England for the most of it.

But, even more unexpectedly, England went ahead only twelve minutes after equalizing. Good work from Milner down the left gave Rooney the space to carry the ball forwards, and 30 yards from goal, curled a delightful shot into the top corner. A beautiful finish.

Imaginary whispers filled the stadium. Were the mighty Brazil really going to lose against puny England, on home soil? It seemed not. Lucas found space on the right to put the cross in, and on the volley, Paulinho hammered the ball into the bottom corner. Best goal of the night by far. England had only been ahead for three minutes.

The remaining minutes were uneventful. England were happy to sit on their draw, and Brazil just seemed to lack the urgency to push for a winner. It was merely a friendly, after all. The game ended 2-2.

Another woeful performance from Roy Hodgson’s boys, only days after their pitiful 1-1 draw against the Irish on Wednesday. Rio 2014 may seem ages away, but if they play all their games like that, the Three Lions will be lucky to qualify.

If anyone wants to discuss the game with me, check me out on Twitter (@LeanderWinden) and thanks for reading.

Leander Winden