The whole of Brazil had rigged up for the World Cup party right up until July 19 – and beyond. Already on July 5, the most winning nation in World Cup history was out of the championship. Ståle Solbakken’s national team squad had sent the world’s fifth most populous nation into deep football grief. Only now is coach Carlo Ancelotti coming out and explaining how the unheard of could happen.
We have to take a little look back at the Brazil match, an episode where Brazil’s “football god” Neymnar goes towards the penalty mark in the 90th + 10th minute on 2-0 to Norway. This was supposed to be the Brazilian’s big championship, where he comes in and saves Brazil with a few minutes of magic. Because in fluent Spanish, our man on the line, Ørjan Nyland, hammers one verbal salvo after another against Neymar. The response was entertaining.
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Neymar responded with the same force, as he prepared for the penalty. A Norwegian goalkeeper, with a puzzled 630 minutes in the match arena in the 2025/26 season, made Neymar himself get mightily annoyed. It ended with a goal, where Neymar’s reaction was like he had won the biggest game. The Brazilian told Nyland in plain language who won, while “our man” smiled and laughed. Not many hours later, after being knocked out by the football mosquito Norway, Neymar said he is retiring from the national team.
Then it has been completely quiet from the Brazilians. This week, Brazil boss Carlo Ancelotti is available for his analysis.
“I think we lost the World Cup during the drinks break against Norway,” Carlo Ancelotti begins to ESPN.
“Why?” Because up until that moment the team had control. It is also true that Norway had a lot of possession in their own half – they played the same way against England. They controlled the game and they could have won,” the Italian coaching legend continues.
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Who admits he made a mistake.
“Maybe that’s where my mistake lay: thinking that the team had lost control of the game when it really hadn’t,” Ancelotti continues.
From the round of 16 against Japan, Acelotti made one change. Ødegaard’s Arsenal mate Gabriel Martinelli came in for an injured Lucas Paquetá, thus Matheus Cunha was dropped down as a 10, while Vinícius Júnior went up as a striker.
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Within an hour of the game, Ancelotti replaced Cunha with Endrick and rotated the team again by moving Vinícius again.
“I made some changes to the team (after the water break) and then we had the problem with Erling Haaland’s goal. And then, in a World Cup, when you concede a goal in the 30th minute (of the second half), it’s very difficult to come back from it, it comes from the Brazilian national team coach.
Many good explanations for why we managed to beat the football superpower Brazil, but for us, who watched the game in between all the rowing, there was one team that was in control: Norway.
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Sorry, Ancelotti, Brazil lost to the better team. There was no water break that sank Brazil.
