Carlo Ancelotti's Brazil sweep past Panama with six goals in emphatic friendly victory

The Estadio do Maracana was packed to the rafters and already buzzing when Vinicius Junior pounced on a midfield error by Yoel Barcenas, smashing home a long-range effort less than a minute into the match.

Ever the Real Madrid star, Vinicius then caused more trouble moments later when his shot after a deft run was well saved by Orlando Mosquera.

Panama could have been forgiven for folding under this early pressure, but they managed to find their footing and surprisingly equalised just before the quarter hour mark, albeit in fortunate circumstances.

Michael Murillo's free kick took a heavy deflection off the wall and deceived Alisson before settling in the far corner, with the equaliser eventually recorded as an own goal by the unfortunate Matheus Cunha.

Panama continued to press, and Fidel Escobar stung Alisson's palms from distance, while Ismael Diaz missed a couple of good opportunities for England's Group L opponents to take a shock lead.

However, Carlo Ancelotti's side regained the lead with just over five minutes remaining in the first half. It was another Vinicius effort, but this time his shot was helped past Mosquera by Casemiro.

VAR confirmed that the captain was just onside when he glanced his header home to give his team the advantage at the interval.

The Brazil manager made 10 changes at the break and, after Endrick came close to a third, Mosquera's poor clearance was seized upon by Rayan.

The Bournemouth man still had work to do but curled home brilliantly into the empty net for his first senior international goal in just his second cap.

Wholesale changes often slow a team's momentum but for Brazil it did the opposite as they got their fourth on the hour mark. Douglas Santos made good ground and rolled a pass along the edge of the box for Lucas Paqueta to stroke home via a deflection.

The onslaught did not end there and Mosquera's difficult night continued as he brought down Igor Thiago in the box. The Brentford striker dusted himself off to confidently roll his penalty into the bottom corner for the Selecao's fifth.

Brazil were not finished yet either as the 'second half team' continued to give Ancelotti selection headaches. It was Danilo Santos who latched on to Paqueta's clever lofted pass and showed great footwork to control, steady himself and finish beautifully.

Thomas Christiansen's men looked shell-shocked but, to their credit, they stuck at it and scored arguably the goal of the game in this high-scoring affair.

After Jose Fajardo battled for possession on the edge of the box, he laid it off for Carlos Harvey to hammer home from all of 25 yards, giving the hitherto untroubled Ederson no chance.

Brazil will travel to the United States to face Egypt in a final friendly before their tournament opener against Morocco in less than two weeks. This was always going to be a tough night for Panama and they can look forward to taking on Ghana in their World Cup curtain raiser in 17 days' time.