Brazil vs. France

Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, Massachusetts, USA, March 26, 2026

Kickoff: 4:00 PM EST / 5:00 PM BRT / 8:00 PM GMT

US TV/Streaming: ESPN2, ESPN Deportes

Starting XI: Ederson; Wesley, Ibañez, Léo Pereira, Douglas Santos; Casemiro, Andrey Santos; Raphinha, Matheus Cunha, Vini Júnior, Gabriel Martinelli.

On The Bench: Bento, Hugo Souza (replaces Alisson); Kaiki (replaces Alex Sandro), Bremer, Danilo (Flamengo), Marquinhos out vs. France, Gabriel Magalhães cut for injury and not replaced; Danilo (Botafogo), Gabriel Sara, Fabinho; Endrick, Igor Thiago, João Pedro, Luiz Henrique, Rayan.

Notes and Storylines

This game will take place 11 years to the day after our last meeting with France, which we won 3-1, in what was surely the high-water mark of Dunga’s second tenure in charge of the Seleção. Knowing how quickly things fell apart for him after this point, it’s kind of hard to believe he ever had the team playing at this high of a level. Before then, a team that had yet to secure a convincing result under fellow second-tenure coach Luiz Felipe Scolari managed 3-0 win on the eve of the 2013 Confederations Cup, which may have served as the spark behind the memorabl tournament run that followed. (Just don’t ask about what happened at the World Cup the following summer).

But in the longer term, France have proven to be one of Brazil’s toughest opponents. Our 5-2 win in the 1958 World Cup semifinal remains our only win against the French in a tournament setting, and obviously nothing we do on Thursday will change that, but it will nonetheless be a good test of our World Cup ambitions. France are probably the best national team of the last decade (it’s hard to beat one World Cup win and another final appearance, even if their Euros performances haven’t quite measured up), and their talent pool remains maybe the deepest, most stacked in international football. Didier Deschamps has called up a squad for this game that includes the likes of Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, Michael Olise, Rayan Cherki, Hugo Ekitike, and Désiré Doué in attack. Still, much like us, you can see a few questionable decisions (no room for Bradley Barcola?) and places where they can’t move on from an established star playing in a lower-level league (Théo Hernandez moved to Al-Hilal last summer—as did Kingsley Coman, who isn’t in this squad but featured for France last fall—and N’Golo Kanté just moved to Fenerbahçe after two and a half years in Saudi Arabia). They also, coincidentally, just lost their own half of Arsenal’s center-back pairing, William Saliba, to injury on the same day as Gabriel Magalhães withdrew from Brazil’s squad. I’m sure they’ve both suffered terribly serious injuries and it’ll only be through an unprecedented medical miracle that they’ll both be starting in Arsenal’s Champions League quarterfinal in two weeks.

So, a difficult game against a historically tough opponent in the midst of maybe the strongest era in its history. What should we expect from this game? Or even just hope for? What can we learn? Here’s a few things that I think might be on the table:

A fresh look at left-back. With Alex Sandro out, the options we have at our most troubled position are: Douglas Santos, who I understand gave a good account of himself against Korea and Japan in October but saw his travel to the USA foiled by cancelled flights and could enter this game having had only one training session with the group; 23-year-old Kaiki of Cruzeiro—the same Cruzeiro which were very good last year but are now dead last and winless in the league this year—who was called at the last minute to replace Alex Sandro, and about whom I know nothing else; and the rogue option, Wesley, who was clearly called up as a right-back but, given that he’s been playing at left wingback for Roma more often than not, might have a case to deputize on the left for Brazil. I write this before any news has emerged about who will start (update: it will be Douglas Santos, despite his late arrival), but given how staid and dreary the likes of Alex Sandro and Caio Henrique have proven at left-back, any of them would be a refreshing change of pace, at least on paper. (Wesley or Kaiki could well be a disaster against France’s crop of extremely fast wingers.)

A proper test for Wesley. If he doesn’t play on the left, that might be because he’s better served on the right, where he might be the only player in the squad capable of keeping up with Kylian Mbappé in a footrace. Not that athleticism will matter much if he’s caught a million miles behind the play.

A backup goalie getting exposed… or proving his worth? I am not keen on our pool of goalkeepers right now, and while I include Alisson in my pessimism, his injury means Ederson will probably get thrown into the fire, facing easily his toughest test for Brazil since… oh gosh, maybe Uruguay in ’23? If he’s on the decline, there’ll never be a better chance to demonstrate it and maybe make the case for bringing someone else into the picture, but on the contrary, if he’s still got it, there’s no better way to show it than with a big performance against France.

Some clarity at striker. Igor Thiago might be the second-highest scorer in the Premier League this season (and he could well pass Erling Haaland if Haaland can’t get out of this rough patch), but strip away his six penalties and his goals-per-90-minutes figure is lower than Richarlison’s, and Richarlison has been playing for a fucking disaster of a team. I’m glad he finally got his first callup, and I hope he turns out to be the true number 9 I think Brazil could really stand to have somewhere in the squad, if not necessarily starting, but I’m not sure I’ve seen enough to convince me that he can step up like we’d need him to. I have more faith in Endrick to deliver in his own first callup for Brazil under Carlo Ancelotti; he’s been playing pretty well for Lyon, though often as more of a right winger when what we really need is a reliable goalscorer. But he has skill and speed in droves and that could take him farther.

Also in the squad are João Pedro and Matheus Cunha, two guys who are almost definitely going to the World Cup but who still need to put it all together for Brazil. JP has been probably the most impressive Brazilian center forward in Europe this season—his 14 Premier League goals, none from the penalty spot, put him ahead of Igor Thiago by that metric—but I have literally never seen him play well for Brazil. He’s always looked lost, on a completely different wavelength from every teammate around him. Cunha has looked better, and can contribute in other areas of the pitch, but he still only has one goal for Brazil in 19 caps. Even considering that he just fundamentally isn’t the sort of reliable goalscorer I wish he were, that’s a pretty miserable return.

Whoever it is, I hope one of these four can finally make the case that they can, you know, score some fucking goals in a yellow shirt.

Raphinha and Vini finally putting their stamp on this team. …well, I wrote that sentence and the whole last entry before Ancelotti announced his lineup, which also features Cunha and Gabriel Martinelli. I’m not sure what to make of that. How will those four line up together? Raphinha is really the only one with any pedigree as a right winger, and he’s definitely better playing on the left or through the middle. Vini also prefers the left, so to fit both Raphinha either has to play through the middle or Vini has to play as a forward, perhaps forming a strike partnership with Cunha. But that probably forces Martinelli to play right wing, which he does occasionally do for Arsenal, to be fair, but only in about 10-15% of games, if Transfermarkt is to be believed.

Either way, somebody is going to have to play out of their preferred position, and if it’s Raphinha, that’d be a damn shame. Injuries have kept him out of Brazil’s last four games, so he really hasn’t had a chance to establish himself (or not) within Ancelotti’s setup. Vini also being out for the two games before then means they’ve only shared the pitch once under Ancelotti, another cause for worry. We need these two to play well, because they’re our two best and most successful attackers right now, and right now neither has had much chance to do so themselves, let alone together. But I can’t help but feel like Raphinha might get the short end of the stick, given Ancelotti’s time with Vini at Real Madrid, and that might itself be a mistake, because while it’d be a stretch to say that Raphinha’s been exceptional for Brazil, he’s undeniably been a lot better than Vini.

All in all, I have to say I’m a bit pessimistic about this game. Not because I think we match up particularly badly against France, though their attackers could certainly end up exposing our weaknesses at fullback, but because Brazil’s still very much a work in progress and France, though they have a propensity for dropping random clunkers in games they should win handily, represent a far more refined and practiced version of a similar concept. (Plus, they might have the edge on talent, at least if you count all the quality attackers they can’t possibly all fit into the same starting lineup.) I wouldn’t be surprised if the French come away with a 2-1 win, but hopefully one that provides some real lessons for Brazil, rather than simply deflating our hopes of competing at the World Cup.