Football Focus Highlight

A lacklustre England went down 1-0 to Brazil, for whom Nilmar scored the only goal in a friendly in Qatar.

Fabio Capello's injury-ravaged side were well beaten, and should have lost by a greater margin.

Goalkeeper Ben Foster might have been sent off for a foul that led to a penalty, which was fired high and wide by Luis Fabiano, while Brazil skipper Lucio lashed a late shot against the woodwork.

The absence of most of Capello's first team gave fringe players such as Darren Bent and Shaun Wright-Phillips the chance to impress, yet none of the lesser lights staked much of a case for a seat on the plane to South Africa.

Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, among others, will sleep easily tonight after their understudies did little to prompt Capello into a radical selection rethink.

Terry's ankle injury meant Wayne Rooney captained his country for the first time, and Fabio Capello may be concerned at his team's over-reliance on their number 10. Beyond the 24-year-old's natural skill and wholehearted effort, England posed little genuine attacking threat.

Recent games have been marked by individual errors, and again several slips undermined the England defence.

On 11 minutes Matthew Upson, drawn out to the right touchline, was skinned by Nilmar who raced into the box but saw his low cross cut out by Joleon Lescott.

Shortly afterwards, Upson played Ben Foster into trouble with a poor backpass and the goalkeeper scuffed an awful clearance straight at Kaka 30 yards out who, amazingly, miscontrolled.

England lacked fluency in midfield, shorn of the passing quality of Lampard and Michael Carrick - replaced by Jermaine Jenas after twisting his ankle.

Rooney provided England's main attacking threat, taking to the captaincy with relish and dropping deep to find possession with his usual vigour. With less than two minutes on the clock, he slid in but was just unable to make contact with a Wright-Phillips cross from the right.

However, the Manchester United forward seemed like a lone hope for England, and failed with several attempts to play a killer ball to his team-mates.



Ten minutes before half-time, Rooney was bodychecked 25 yards out but the referee played advantage and Bent saw his low shot deflected wide for a corner.

Just 100 seconds into the second half, Brazil broke the deadlock with a simple link-up between Elano and Nilmar. The midfielder lofted a pass into the box that the striker sprinted on to and headed past Foster into the right corner.

Rio Ferdinand's many critics might ponder the ease with which Nilmar accelerated away from Upson to meet the ball.

It ought to have been two on 56 minutes after another individual mistake, this time from Wes Brown.

The Manchester United man chested a possible backpass into the path of Nilmar, who raced through on goal and was upended by Foster, who was fortunate to see only a yellow card.

Althgouh Fabiano sent the resultant penalty high and wide, it was an incident that confirmed neither Brown nor Foster are serious contenders for a starting berth at the World Cup.

England struggled to compete, but might have drawn level through James Milner on 70 minutes; the Aston Villa man volleying over from a tight angle after meeting a right-sided Wright-Phillips cross.

Brazil skipper Lucio was inches from doubling the lead 12 minutes from time, when the centre-back strode forward in characteristic fashion and crashed a left-foot shot against the woodwork.

While Brazil were the better side, they did not necessarily justify their status as favourites for South Africa - Spain certainly boast more all-round quality, if not the same World Cup pedigree.
Alex Chick / Eurosport

Source: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/14112009/58/international-football-brazil-outclass-england-doha.html