Brazil must buck up or face missing 2026 World Cup

Five-time champion Brazil finds itself in a precarious position in the South American Football Confederation’s World Cup qualifiers.

As the only nation to qualify for all 22 Fifa World Cups, Brazil has lost three matches, drawn once, and won three so far.

There is still a long way to go – each team plays 18 matches in the round-robin – and the top six countries qualify automatically for the 2026 World Cup in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

However, Brazil’s poor form has pundits concerned it could fail to qualify for the first time in history. Earlier this year, Brazil also failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics – marking the first time in 20 years it didn’t feature in the Olympic Games.

The Samba boys started the World Cup qualifiers impressively, crushing Bolivia 5-1 and edging Peru 1-0, before drawing 1-1 with Venezuela.

But in their next three matches against fellow joint favourites, they lost 2-0 to Uruguay, 2-1 to Colombia, and 1-0 to Argentina.

These defeats resulted in Fernando Diniz losing his job, with Dorival Júnior taking over as Brazil manager in January.

Since Dorival took charge, Brazil has played five tournament matches. It defeated Paraguay 4-1 in July’s Copa America. It then drew 0-0 with Costa Rica and 1-1 with Colombia in the group stage.

In the quarter-final, Brazil played a scoreless draw against Uruguay, before losing 4-2 on penalties.

Before the tournament, Brazil beat Mexico 3-2 and drew 1-1 in warm-up matches. In March, they defeated England 1-0 and drew 3-3 with Spain in friendlies.

This morning Brazil edged Ecuador 1-0 in a World Cup qualifier.

Argentina currently leads the World Cup qualifiers with 18 points, followed by Uruguay (13), Colombia (12), Brazil (10), Venezuela (nine) and Ecuador (eight).

The bottom four teams are Paraguay (six), Bolivia (six), Chile (five) and Peru (three).

The defeat to bitter rivals Argentina was especially hard to take, as it came on home soil. Adding to Brazil’s woes, La Albiceleste, the reigning world champion, went on to defend its Copa America crown, making it three major titles in five years – Copa America (2021 and 2024) and the World Cup (2022).

Brazil’s last international title was the 2019 Copa America.

Dorival is well aware of the enormous task ahead of him in trying to turn Brazil’s fortunes around, especially with talisman Neymar sidelined since last October and nearing the twilight of his career.

He may have to rebuild the team around Real Madrid star Rodrygo, who was surprisingly overlooked for the Ballon d’Or despite scoring 17 goals, providing nine assists, and winning both La Liga and the Champions League.

The results against England and Spain – the Euro 2024 finalists – indicate Brazil has the talent to challenge the ‘big guns’.

However, it must now put together a string of strong performances to secure a place in the 2026 World Cup.