When the international friendly between football behemoths Gareth Southgate’s England and Brazil went on sale in November 2023, nobody expected Wembley Stadium’s almost 90,000-person capacity to be sold out in a mere eight hours. More so, no one ever expected Brazil, who recently succumbed to a four-game losing streak after battling a year of non-stop injuries, to be salvaged by 17-year-old forward Endrick Felipe Moreira, causing England’s first loss since December 2022 in the World Cup 2022 quarter-final against France.
The rambunctious Brazilians were operating at a visible loss, functioning under a new head coach, Dorival Junior, who admitted the team’s much-needed identity shift at a press conference ahead of today’s match, which started with five newcomers. However, the match’s first ten minutes told an opposite story, with England immediately rushing to defend Paquetá’s many shots (and misses) on goal.
What’s normally an easy England win vanished the moment captain Harry Kane’s injury took him out of the first of two friendlies in the last international break of the season. With the recent injury crisis claiming Jordan Henderson and Cole Palmer, and “a third of 40 players” unavailable for the summer tournament, it left English midfielder Jude Bellingham unable to properly coordinate the nation’s “B” team, let alone pack enough creative spark to outrun Paquetá’s bull-dozing and rather careless yellow-carded shoves.
For as much as the action-packed first half brought England a cornucopia of penalty and corner kicks, none got debutant keeper Bento Krepski— well, that is if Watkins and Gordon actually aimed at the net. On the other hand, Brazil’s first-half accuracy was just as apt as Paqueta hitting the post and Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr. line-tethering ball (which was saved by England’s Kyle Walker)– deadly on-target and kicked not with force, but real purpose.
All of which hit a head late in the mostly lackluster second half, or at the 80-minute mark, to be precise, when 17-year-old Brazilian forward Endrick crushed Vinicius’ rebound from England keeper Jordan Pickford well into the opposing team’s net. In a strange turn of events, Wembley erupted in cheers and, to make the moment all that precious, Endrick enjoyed a tear war cry, celebrating he scored his first international goal.
What was the game’s last ten minutes, and four additional minutes for penalty time if it matters, was England unsuccessfully blowing smoke and quarter-field kicks. The match was over in the 80th minute, but Pereira tried to give Endrick his second international goal in the game’s final seconds in what has to be the cleanest breakaway of 2024 (so far). Though Endrick missed a second time, Wembley stadium is quite the venue to make your first international goal– a goal that both earned Brazil’s first win in London since 1995 and solidified the 17-year-old as the youngest senior international goalscorer at Wembley.
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