A Lino double saw Brazil win 4-0 as 51,402 fans chanted for their heroes as well as home team at the Salt Lake Stadium

Updated on: Oct 3, 2026, 22:53:54 IST

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Sometimes cliches do tell it best. Defeated not disgraced would sum up India’s first ever senior men’s international football match against Brazil. The five-time champions scored twice in each half and even after the 4-0 defeat India were left wondering what could have been had they taken their chances. That is an injection of reality Khalid Jamil’s men can live with after an encounter that wasn’t even in their dreams a little over two months ago.

In a match like this, even if you don’t want to, the eye automatically goes to the clock. Yet, 26 minutes in, the teams separated by 132 places in FIFA rankings, had duelled equally when it came to corner-kicks. India and Brazil had three. By then, Manvir Singh had gone solo once. Ryan Williams, Manvir and Sahal Abdul Samad played a sequence of passes but Marquinhos was at the right place at the right time.

The Brazil skipper then showed why he is one of the first names Luis Enrique pencils in at Paris St-Germain, timing his run beautifully to deny Manvir in the 15th and then sliding superbly to prevent a corner-kick. Soon after, Manvir tried a shot from range.

The off-side trap set by Jamil for Brazil’s lone forward Pedro was working. And then, as chants of “Brazil, Brazil” echoed at Salt Lake stadium, Williams fooled Douglas Santos with a turn. Even when they were 0-2 down, India played triangle of passes through Lalengmawia Ralte, Anwar Ali and Samad but Williams was off-side. The crowd responded by chanting “India, India.”

With raking balls from the centre, Brazil tried finding Vinicius Jr on the left. But the Real Madrid star was reined in by Abhishek Singh Teckham and Anirudh Thapa dropping in to help the defence. When Vinicius Jr went solo, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu got big on him.

Vinicius Jr being shackled got Brazil to seamlessly switch to the right. It would be easy to blame Sandhu for Estevao’s goal in the 28th minute, especially because it happened at his near post. But credit would have to go to the 19-year-old player Chelsea spent €34m on for how he sent Kuruniyan the wrong way to create space.

It was 2-0 in the 41st minute when Pedro beat the off-side trap, running off Ali’s shoulder in a flash to meet Estevao’s defence-splitting pass. Again, Sandhu got a hand but the shot was powerful. By then, Pedro had hit the upright with a free header. Speaking to the official broadcasters, Ali said the goals stemmed from “silly mistakes” but by then, Brazil had shifted gears.

Yet, India came out after the break determined to make the once-in-a-lifetime experience memorable. Easily the best Indian player on view, Williams forced a goalline save in the 64th minute after first going past Jair and then losing the player by stopping his run. Williams then opened his shoulder to fire and it needed a save on the line by Mauro Junior and helped Pedro Morisco keep a clean sheet on his debut.

On minute earlier, Williams, who gave up his Australian citizenship last year, had forced Morisco to leave his line. In the 67th minute, Williams was found in space by Manvir but he volleyed wide. These moves had come after Manvir forced a save from Morisco.

A goal from India could have livened the evening but it was Samuel Lino, the Flamengo winger, who scored in the 58th and in 90+5. They were his first for Brazil so Lino, 26, will remember this Saturday evening. So will 51,402 who came to see samba soccer at Salt Lake stadium. They will know that sometimes the scoreline does not always tell the full story.

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