Brazil Held by Morocco as Local Media Slam Casemiro and Ancelotti

Brazil opened its 2026 World Cup campaign with a dramatic 1-1 draw against Morocco in the biggest match of the group stage so far, extending its unbeaten start in World Cup openers to 21 games but failing to win. The result came about a year after Carlo Ancelotti was appointed Brazil coach, with expectations high that he would lead the Seleção toward a record sixth world title.

Brazil’s main bright spot was Vinícius Júnior, who scored a superb goal, his 10th for the national team in 60 appearances. Even so, Brazilian media heavily criticized the team after the match. Rafael Ribeiro of the newspaper O Dia said, “We have the weakest right-backs in our history, Casemiro is slower than internet in the 1990s.” He added that although Vinícius scored a great goal, he was poor in other actions and said Morocco is currently a better team than Brazil.

Another local report said Ancelotti appeared content with a draw and questioned why Endrick did not come off the bench. On the Moroccan side, Mohamed Ouahbi stood out in his first match ever at senior level, guiding the Atlas Lions to their 30th straight game without a loss in regular time.

Morocco also played without injured Nayef Aguerd and Ez Abde, yet showed strong form and signaled it intends to continue the momentum from the 2022 World Cup, when it reached the semifinals.