Brazil edge Egypt in international friendly as World Cup looms for both

The five-time world champions arrived in Cleveland having built up a bit of momentum with consecutive friendly victories over Croatia and Panama, and took just seven minutes to break the deadlock here.

Mohanad Lasheen was caught hesitating on the ball from Mostafa Shobeir’s clearance, and Bruno Guimaraes clinically placed his shot into the bottom right corner. 

The Seleção would have expected to push on from there, but Egypt drew level a mere four minutes later when Mostafa Ziko intercepted a blind backpass from Marquinhos before calmly slotting the ball past Alisson, making it two goals in two appearances for his country.

Carlo Ancelotti had further cause for concern moments later when Wesley Franca was forced off with a knock in a lively opening 20 minutes.

Brazil were gradually beginning to find their rhythm as the half progressed though, as Vinicius Junior and Igor Thiago both had efforts saved by Shobeir. Vinicius then had a penalty appeal turned down seconds before half time after going down in the box with Mohamed Hany’s trailing leg dangling. 

Ancelotti made eight changes ahead of the second half, and one of those introductions re-established Brazil’s lead seven minutes after the restart. Raphinha made a jinking run down the left and set up Endrick, who applied a brilliant first time finish past Shobeir.

Mohamed Salah was one of four half time changes for Egypt, and looked to take matters into his own hands with a speculative deflected long range strike which flew over the bar.

Ultimately, this was a job well done for the Selecao team gaining momentum at exactly the right time after an inauspicious qualification campaign. They will be full of confidence heading into their World Cup opener against Morocco, while this defeat ends a three match unbeaten run for Egypt ahead of their first group game against Belgium.