England vs Brazil Preview

England and Brazil will square up this Saturday in arguably the biggest international friendly fixture of the March 2024 international break.

Both sides are preparing to participate in a major tournament in June. England will play in the European Championship in Germany while Brazil is among the contingent travelling to the United States for the 2024 Copa America.

Even with the context of the encounter just being a friendly, there are lots of things that England fans will be looking out for when their side faces Brazil at the historic Wembley Stadium. There is the matter of Brazil’s biggest stars turning up for the game while the fact that some of the high-profile squad debutants could make their first appearances for the Three Lions will also excite fans.

Manager Gareth Southgate rewarded the likes of Anthony Gordon, Jarrad Branthwaite, Ezri Konsa, and Kobbie Mainoo with their first senior call-ups. He will be looking to use this game and next week’s match against Belgium as a chance to experiment with his squad ahead of Euro 2024.

Yet the Englishman will want to put together some strong performances with wins. Although England is unbeaten since the 2022 World Cup (W8, D2), an unremarkable 2-0 win over Malta, followed by an unflattering 1-1 draw against North Macedonia in November has left fans underwhelmed and demanding more.

Meanwhile, Brazil travel to London to overturn their poor form and instill some confidence in their doubting fans. The Seleção have been struggling lately and are currently on a run of four games without a win, including three losses in a row in their World Cup Qualifying games. Those losses have left them eight points behind leaders Argentina and in the last spot that guarantees a place in the 2026 finals.

They will be desperate to put on a show in London and get some relief from the pressure of losing. That said, we can expect a good game from them given that they’ve suffered defeat in just one of the last 11 international meetings with England (W4, D6). They have also recorded nine away wins in ten friendly games (L1) since their last visit to Wembley in November 2017 (0-0).