Brazil held to a 1-1 friendly draw by Tunisia, despite another Estevao Willian goal
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Brazil forward Estevao Willian celebrates after scoring the opener from the penalty spot during the 1-1 international friendly draw against Tunisia at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy in France on Nov 18, 2025.
PHOTO: AFP
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PARIS – Carlo Ancelotti’s Brazil were held to a disappointing 1-1 friendly draw by Tunisia in Lille on Nov 18 as their stuttering build-up to the 2026 World Cup continued.
In-form 18-year-old Estevao Willian scored a penalty, but Lucas Paqueta squandered an opportunity to win the game for the Selecao from the spot.
The five-time world champions are heading into the 2026 tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada under a bit of a cloud after ending only fifth in South American qualifying.
They also slipped to a 3-2 friendly loss to Japan in October, but Ancelotti is confident his team will improve before the tournament.
“We’re on the right track to reach our best level at the World Cup,” the former Real Madrid boss told reporters.
“We played a very good match against Senegal (2-0 win last week) and today it was a much more difficult match against Tunisia.
“Tunisia have different characteristics – they defend with a very deep block. It’s much more difficult to find openings in this type of defence.”
Brazil coach Ancelotti named a strong side, including four forwards – Matheus Cunha, Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo and Estevao – in his starting XI.
But Tunisia took a surprise lead midway through the first half when Ali Abdi’s brilliant pass found Hazem Mastouri and the Dynamo Makhachkala striker kept his composure to slip the ball beyond onrushing Brazil goalkeeper Bento.
But Brazil were awarded a penalty by the video assistant referee (VAR) for handball shortly before half-time, much to the disappointment of the thousands of Tunisian fans at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy.
Estevao, who also scored on Oct 15 against Senegal, stepped up to net his fifth international goal.
Brazil were given another penalty with 12 minutes remaining, but substitute Paqueta took over spot-kick duties from Estevao and smashed his effort over the crossbar.
Brazil thought they should have been awarded a third penalty in the 89th minute when Estevao went down, but the referee stuck with his original decision to wave play on despite a VAR review.
Elsewhere, Japan have set themselves the ambitious target of winning the World Cup and coach Hajime Moriyasu believes they are making big strides in the right direction heading into the 2026 Finals.
He celebrated his 100th game in charge with a 3-0 win over Bolivia on Nov 18 and thinks his team are shaping up nicely as Daichi Kamada, Shuto Machino and Keito Nakamura found the net in Tokyo.
Said Moriyasu: “The players showed tonight that we can win even when things aren’t going our way, which builds confidence.
“I changed seven players from the team that started against Ghana (in a 2-0 win) and we showed that we can still win and function effectively regardless of who plays... The players have improved their ability to express the team’s playing style in both attack and defence.” AFP
