Brazil-Egypt Football Match in Qatar

Qatar hosted an international friendly between five-times world champions Brazil and seven-times African champions Egypt on November 14. The match was held at Al Rayyan Stadium, and started at 8 pm.

Vendors selling flags

Al Rayyan Stadium

Brazil was set to play two games against Egypt. The First match on November 14, 2011 in Qatar, the second match in February 2012 in Cairo. The two sides were originally supposed to meet in a friendly at the beginning of September. However, Egypt withdrew due to commitments in the African Cup of Nations qualifiers, and were replaced by Ghana.

Vij bought two tickets nearly 20-25 days back to watch the match and he failed to convince me to accompany him. He took Umer along with him and from the photographs it was clear that both enjoyed the event a lot. It took them nearly one-and-a-half hours to reach the stadium, thanks to the traffic.

Valencia forward Jonas fired Brazil to a convincing 2-0 victory over Egypt in a friendly international at a packed Al Rayyan Stadium. The 27-year-old broke his international duck in style, finding the net once in each half as the five-time world champions, fielding a second-string side, totally outplayed the ailing African giants on a pleasant evening in Doha.

Jonas, who last month created a sensation when he scored the second fastest Champions League goal in history by finding the net inside 10.5 seconds against Bayer Leverkusen, proved quite a handful for the Egyptians with his versatility on the pitch.

Despite the absence of several stars, including Kaka, Marcelo and Neymar, Brazil were never found wanting in any department as they dominated possession throughout the match, hardly giving the Egyptians a chance at goal.

After a slow start, Brazil stepped up the pace and parked themselves in Egyptian territory to keep their goalkeeper Ahmed El Shanawi on his toes as the Selecao, led by Porto star Hulk up front, looked like scoring at every opportunity.

Hulk once again failed to break his scoring drought for the national side in what was his seventh match, but he set up the first one when he slipped in a pass from the edge of the box for the unmarked Jonas to tap the ball home in the 39th minute.

The Egyptians conceded another goal in the 59th when El Shanawi failed to collect the ball cleanly on a header and Jonas made no mistake with the rebound.

American Bob Bradley, who took over as Egypt coach recently, cut a forlorn figure as he watched his team get a lesson in football and the former US handler has a task on his hands as he attempts to rebuild the team who were not long ago the kings of African football.

He is due to watch several Egyptian domestic matches over the next few weeks to select a pool of players to help the country qualify for the 2014 World Cup after agonisingly losing out to bitter rivals Algeria last year.