{"id":11634,"date":"2026-07-06T11:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T06:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/?p=11634"},"modified":"2026-07-06T11:31:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T06:31:57","slug":"ancelotti-fails-in-mission-to-end-brazils-world-cup-woe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/sports\/ancelotti-fails-in-mission-to-end-brazils-world-cup-woe\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancelotti fails in mission to end Brazil’s World Cup woe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brazil turned to Carlo Ancelotti hoping the Italian coaching great could end their long wait to win another World Cup, but his mission ended in a painful defeat to Norway on Sunday as the Selecao’s woes at the tournament went on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two Erling Haaland goals decided the last-16 clash at the MetLife Stadium in Norway’s favour after Bruno Guimaraes had an early penalty saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neymar’s successful late spot-kick was just a consolation, as the once mighty Brazilians — who had just 34 percent possession — slumped to their earliest World Cup exit since 1990.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ex-Real Madrid and AC Milan coach was appointed in May last year and recently signed a contract extension to stay until 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He may have been realistic enough to know winning this year’s World Cup was a big ask, but going out so soon is an enormous disappointment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite that, he insisted he would stay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A defeat is the start of a new adventure. Now we need to keep working hard and keep improving,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is football. This is sport. You just have to deal with it. We will use this as fuel going forward.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) had been courting Ancelotti for two years before getting their man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Selecao were in a dire state after their quarter-final exit on penalties to Croatia at the 2022 World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coach Tite departed, and Fernando Diniz took over for the start of qualifying for this World Cup, but lasted just six games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In came Dorival Junior, but the veteran oversaw a quarter-final exit at the 2024 Copa America before being dismissed in March last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ancelotti saw Brazil over the line, although they finished fifth in the 10-team South American qualifying group, 10 points behind first-placed Argentina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hope, expectation even, was that they would still compete strongly here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead they continued a now long-standing trend — since last winning the World Cup in 2002, they have lost every time they have faced European opposition in the knockout stages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the last five World Cups before this, Brazil lost four times in the quarter-finals and reached the semis once — when they suffered a traumatising 7-1 defeat to Germany as hosts in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Endrick to step up?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sunday’s defeat suggests they are going backwards, despite the leadership shown at this year’s tournament by Vinicius Junior, the Real Madrid forward who turns 26 next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Being knocked out of a World Cup is always a huge blow,” he said. “But now we have to move on, there’s not much we can do.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ancelotti's
Ancelotti’s decision to include an ageing and injury-ravaged Neymar in his World Cup squad was a gamble which did not pay off \u00a9 Pedro UGARTE \/ AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That means eventually turning their attention towards the next Copa America in 2028, before they can build to the 2030 World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time that comes around, the nation of the great Pele will have gone 28 years without lifting the trophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ancelotti has had an incredible managerial career at club level in Europe, winning the Champions League five times. But his relationship with the World Cup has been less happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a player, he missed Italy’s victorious 1982 World Cup campaign through injury. He played in 1990, when Italy hosted but lost in the semi-finals to Argentina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then came 1994 and the shootout loss to Brazil in the final in the USA, with a 35-year-old Ancelotti serving as Arrigo Sacchi’s assistant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time he insisted his team had given a good account of themselves, as they eased through the group stage and fought back to beat Japan in the last 32.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I don’t think we have had a spectacular World Cup but we had a good one,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His decision to include Neymar was a gamble, with the 34-year-old not having played for his country since 2023 because of injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It didn’t pay off — he made only two substitute appearances and announced his international retirement after the Norway loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was an ageing squad, with 10 players in their thirties. “We need fresh talent, top-class players who can play in the national team of the future,” added Ancelotti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Endrick, the 19-year-old Real Madrid starlet, could lead the next generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The history of the Brazilian national team has been marked by great achievements, but also by moments that have strengthened us going forward,” said a CBF statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Today we say goodbye to the World Cup, but we do sure that we will come back stronger.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brazil turned to Carlo Ancelotti hoping the Italian coaching great could end their long wait to win another World Cup, but his mission ended in a painful defeat to Norway on Sunday as the Selecao’s woes at the tournament went on. Two Erling Haaland goals decided the last-16 clash at the MetLife Stadium in Norway’s […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":11635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}