Read for 5 minutes6 Jul 2026 07:39 PM IST
The five-time champions lost 1-2 to Norway in the round of 16 in New Jersey on Sunday Brazil exited the tournament. The loss in the round of 16 meant that it was the country’s first World Cup exit since their defeat in the last 16 of the 1990 World Cup. The defeat means that Brazil have failed to win the World Cup in the last five editions of the tournament since Cafu-led Brazil won the World Cup in 2002. Former Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic believes Brazil are haunted by their history and the players are under pressure to at least win the World Cup.
“Brazil is haunted by history for what they did. Because today every Brazilian team, individual player, is haunted by history and history, unfortunately, is very strong. There are players who are the best players in the world and also the best players in history. So the results they want to achieve is at least to win the World Cup. And I won’t respect that before Norz, he said, Don B. Let them go there and play and we say that this Brazil is different, and I know Not that we have done that.
During the last World Cup, Brazil reached the tournament as the top ranked team in the world. Before this year’s World Cup, Brazil were ranked sixth in the world, their lowest pre-World Cup ranking since FIFA began the rankings in 1992. During their World Cup campaign, Brazil finished fifth in South American qualifying and lost six matches, including defeats against Colombia and Paraguay. Italian Carlo Ancelotti took over as coach last year after Dorival Jr was sacked following his country’s defeat to Argentina in last year’s World Cup qualifiers. Ancelotti, the most successful manager in the history of the Champions League with five titles, is the only manager in Europe to win league titles in five leagues and also oversaw Brazil’s campaign in qualifying for this World Cup. His contract was extended this May. Brazil started their World Cup campaign with a 1-1 draw against Morocco, followed by a 3-0 draw against Haiti and a similar win over Scotland to top Group C. Marquinhos-led side won 2-1 against Japan in the last round of 32. xxx shared how before this World Cup most football pundits were talking about Ancelotti and not the Brazil team.
“We talked more about Carlo Ancelotti being a super manager, about a winning CV. He’s winning the best CV everywhere he goes, and we’re talking about that. But the team is not like ours. So it’s not a surprise to me, because it’s the first game. I don’t think they’ve convinced a lot of people,” I said, “I’ll go the way of Sarvahimavik.”
Sunday’s defeat continues Brazil’s long wait to win the World Cup. In the last five World Cups, Brazil have lost in the quarterfinals four times and reached the semifinals just once — when Thiago Silva’s side lost 1-7 against Germany at the 2014 World Cup. Ancelotti shared that the team needs some young talent and how they can manage in the next World Cup cycle. “Obviously, everyone is disappointed with what happened. We didn’t have a spectacular World Cup campaign, but we had a good campaign. I think we have to move some players. We need some young talent. We need some high-level players to come into Brazilian football to play for the national team in the future. We’re going to manage that,” Anellotti said. “We will accept this defeat, and we will use the new cycle as fuel to move forward,” Ancelotti told reporters after the defeat.