Brazil’s win over Australia wasn’t just about penalties—it was a midfield makeover. See how Ancelotti’s tactical tweak unleashed Bruno Guimarães, improved Brazil’s build-up, and created more danger going forward. Was Bruno the game’s real MVP? Watch the breakdown and decide!
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0:00 - Brazil’s Midfield Tactical Shift
4:48 - Bruno Guimarães and the Third Goal
7:51 - Bruno Guimarães’s Match Statistics
9:14 - Brazil’s Search for Complete Midfielders
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#Brazil #Football #Soccer
Subscribe for more football analysis!
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0:00 - Brazil’s Midfield Tactical Shift
4:48 - Bruno Guimarães and the Third Goal
7:51 - Bruno Guimarães’s Match Statistics
9:14 - Brazil’s Search for Complete Midfielders
We're now available on Spotify! Listen now https://open.spotify.com/show/
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SportsTranscript
00:00You already know that Brazil beat Australia with two penalty goals, but the real turning point for Ancelotti's team was
00:06a tactical adjustment and a specific player in the game.
00:10And it was exactly him who completely changed the dynamics of the Brazilian team in the midfield.
00:16For this match against Australia, this was Carlo Ancelotti's main change.
00:21Not just an extra midfielder, but also a different dynamic.
00:25We showed here last week that Brazil, in a match also against Australia, used Bruno Guimarães and Danilo to play
00:32alongside the two center backs and had four attackers up front.
00:36In this match here, the idea was to fill this area more, to have more fluidity in building up play
00:42and different behaviors, different roles as well.
00:45Bruno Guimarães was the player who dropped back between the center backs to build up play and not Danilo on
00:50the left side anymore.
00:51Danilo's role was to occupy this area, this space, behind the midfield line of the opponent's marking, as well as
00:59Bom Tempo, so they could create passing lanes for those coming from behind.
01:04That's why Brazil's game flowed in a very different way.
01:07But that wasn't all.
01:09Bruno Guimarães, playing in this first role, has the ability not only for short passes to start the play, but
01:15also for balls like this one.
01:17Looking for Wanderson on the side of the field.
01:21To speed up the game, skip some steps, make the team move forward.
01:25With the extra midfielder, the number of combinations also increased.
01:30More link-ups want those players offering themselves for their teammates, making passes, looking for dynamic.
01:36And with that, the team moves forward on the field with more players.
01:39So that's the movement Bom Tempo makes in this play.
01:42Bruno Guimarães switches the ball to Wanderson.
01:44Bom Tempo moves out from the more central midfield position.
01:47And he already shows up there on the right side to offer support.
01:51As he offers support, they play a 1-2.
01:53As they play a 1-2, notice that Bruno Guimarães, who started the play back there between the center backs,
02:00he's already moving forward here to offer a new passing option to get involved in the play again in another
02:05area of the field.
02:07At the same time, Ryan is here on the right side as a winger, reading what's happening in this play.
02:13He can either take a step back to offer a pass in this 1-2 play,
02:17or he can go for the end line here to provide an option for a ball in behind.
02:21Wanderson returns the ball to the midfield for Bruno Guimarães, right?
02:24The ball is going to go through Bruno Guimarães.
02:26And look at Danilo here also moving forward.
02:28Notice that in this play, the midfielders are constantly moving, always on the move.
02:32Danilo and Bom Tempo, who started by providing support behind the Australian markers,
02:36are already up front, occupying the space between the lines,
02:38giving a passing option forward, just like Bruno Guimarães, who has already moved ahead.
02:42And Wanderson, who's going to finish this play here by scoring the goal, is back here.
02:47Look, he's going to make the pass, speed up the play to Danilo.
02:50As Danilo receives the ball, Ryan and also Rafinha are already making those diagonal runs in behind.
02:57So they can also receive a pass and accelerate in those final meters towards the goal.
03:01So here we can see that the big strength of Brazil in this game was having a midfield capable of
03:06bringing dynamism,
03:07making the plays flow better, and finding their teammates more effectively.
03:10Look at the moment when Bom Tempo receives this ball from Ryan here inside the box.
03:14Bom Tempo starts in the middle, moves to the right side, and then makes a run into the box.
03:17When he makes a run into the box, you have Bom Tempo, Ryan, and here you have Danilo making a
03:23run as well,
03:23which is something he didn't do in the previous game against Australia.
03:26Back then, he was playing further back, right?
03:28Helping with the build-up play.
03:29You have Vinicius here, who entered the box, and Rafinha playing in this number 9 position.
03:33Besides these five players from the Brazilian team, there are two more here at the edge of the box.
03:36Why? If five players go in, the defense will drop back.
03:39That's a natural movement. It's unconscious.
03:41The player will drop back to fill the space and try to help with marking.
03:45And because of that, many times the edge of the box will be left open.
03:49Bom Tempo is going to pass to Wanderson, but he could have passed to Bruno Guimarães.
03:54Regardless of the idea, the outcome should have been a goal.
03:57So, Brazil moved from this 4-2-4 with this huge, gigantic space between the four attackers and the two
04:04midfielders to a 4-3-3.
04:07Where the ball often went through Bruno Guimarães' feet and found support in the movements of Danilo and Bom Tempo
04:12on the inside.
04:13Also, in Wanderson's advances, who found space along the way with Real to create triangles.
04:19Greater fluidity and more ability to work the ball, establish themselves in the attacking half and thus create goal-scoring
04:26opportunities.
04:27With all this improvement in the Brazilian team, with a different tactical scheme and different roles, there's just one thing
04:33that still intrigues me.
04:34The fact that you on the other side still aren't subscribed to the Football Maximal channel.
04:38Did you know that more than 70% of the people who watch our videos still aren't subscribed?
04:42So, if you're part of that group, join the 30% who are already subscribed and come be part of
04:47our family.
04:48All this improvement in the Brazilian national team, with a very different dynamic in the midfield and Bruno Guimarães standing
04:55out,
04:55was also very evident in the third goal of the match against Australia.
04:59When Bruno Guimarães had already participated, moved up a spot on the field and Andres Santos was covering that role.
05:06Other players, different roles, but the same dynamic.
05:09You'll soon notice that when Gabriel Magalhães makes a pass to Jair here in defense,
05:14Andres Santos is already turning his head, looking forward to get a sense of what's happening and anticipate the moves.
05:20Right?
05:20As our Felipe Simonetti likes to joke, this neck turn is something very natural for today's midfielders.
05:26He wants to scan the field and understand the next move.
05:29What is Jair going to do in this pass?
05:32He doesn't have a passing lane here to Andres Santos, right?
05:35There's an Australian player marking him.
05:37But Bruno Guimarães, very intelligently, he was playing a little further forward at that moment.
05:42And he drops back, not only to offer a passing lane, but also to bring the Australian markers with him.
05:46Take a look.
05:47This player here, who was marking blocking the pass to Andres Santos, he pressed the defender.
05:52But the defender made the pass to Bruno Guimarães.
05:54One of the midfielders followed him.
05:56Since this player left Andres Santos' marking, another midfielder has to step up to try to block this pass.
06:02But what happens as a domino effect in this movement?
06:04The backs of the two Australian players are unprotected and Brazil will have a way to progress through there.
06:09Bruno Guimarães receives the pass.
06:11With his first touch, he gives the ball to Andres Santos, who immediately passes it between the two defenders.
06:18Just here, in this quick play, Brazil left behind two, three, four, five markers.
06:24And the back five.
06:24Because of that, also have to push up to stay compact in this pressing.
06:28The sequence keeps showing first-touch passes to make the game flow.
06:30So, Henrik finds Danilo, who quickly turns his body and finds Vinicius Jr. with a lot of space.
06:37And here, Australia is even running back to reorganize.
06:40They managed to get a lot of players back quickly.
06:43But they're running backwards, uphill.
06:45And the Brazilian players are coming straight toward the goal.
06:48Vinicius is going to make a good counter-attack play.
06:50Passes to Henrik.
06:51And you notice back here, look, that Bruno Guimarães had dropped back on this play.
06:55He went back there to help play out from the back and then moves up front to finish by scoring
06:59the goal.
07:00Pretty much like what happened in the first goal.
07:02That's the dynamic of Bruno Guimarães being involved with the ball in many areas of the field.
07:06He was very important for the Brazilian national team.
07:08So, Vinicius makes the individual play here.
07:10He passes it to Henrik.
07:12And here's a detail, right?
07:13Henrik, as the number nine in this play, could have taken the shot.
07:16It would have been reasonable if Henrik had tried to go for the goal here.
07:20But he had little angle to take that shot.
07:22Look how smart the defender is to close in well.
07:24The goalkeeper comes out to close in.
07:25And there's already another one running here towards the goal to block a possible cross shot inside, right?
07:30Here, what Henrik does, he passes it back because surely someone would be running towards the goal.
07:35That pass found Bruno Guimarães.
07:37And Bruno Guimarães found the net.
07:39So, by this point in the analysis, you've surely already understood these dynamics of the Brazilian national team.
07:44And what was worked on so that the team could make this leap in terms of quality in their build
07:50-up play.
07:51So, I'm going to ask you to leave a comment here saying who, in your opinion, was the best player
07:55on the field in this match between Brazil and Australia.
07:58And I'll take this opportunity to tell you that, in my opinion, it was Bruno Guimarães.
08:02And I'll show you some of his stats from this game as well.
08:04Check it out.
08:05According to our 365 scores here, the best rated player for Brazil in the game was Vinicius Jr.
08:11I really disagree with that.
08:12For me, Vinicius Jr. didn't play well.
08:14But, you know, these ratings have a lot to do with the statistics.
08:17Vinicius Jr. was involved in two goals at the end.
08:19Bruno Guimarães got a 7.4.
08:21And I would give him an 8.
08:22It was a great game from Bruno Guimarães.
08:24He mapped more here in the center of the field and a little to the right, the lane where he
08:29moved forward.
08:30And looking at the Brazilian national team's path and Bruno Guimarães' stats here, we can see some interesting things.
08:36Eight passes in the final third.
08:37That shows how involved Bruno Guimarães was in this more decisive area of the field.
08:42He had more passes in the final third during the game than backward passes.
08:46Look how cool this stat is for Bruno Guimarães in this match.
08:49And in completed passes with 45 and an 88% success rate.
08:54He was the third Brazilian player with the most accurate passes in this game, behind only the two centerbacks.
08:59Right?
09:00Because they're close to the buildup, they participate very actively in that phase.
09:04Bruno Guimarães also had 70 on-ball actions in this game and three recoveries.
09:09He did really, really well.
09:11The number eight, as I said, for me, he was the best player on the field.
09:14And here's something interesting.
09:16Because Brazil is searching, and Ancelotti has mentioned this a few times, for a complete midfielder or some complete midfielders.
09:24We're looking a lot at recent years, right, at national teams that have players who can play in many roles
09:29and who can lead the team on the field.
09:31They're the guys who control the game.
09:33So that Croatian team that knocked Brazil out had Modric and Brozovic, for example.
09:37The German team that won the World Cup here in Brazil had Toni Kroos, who was one of the best
09:42midfielders of his era.
09:43The team that knocked Brazil out in 2018 in Russia, the Belgian team, had Kevin De Bruyne, who played as
09:48a deep-lying midfielder, could be a number 10, and was all over the field.
09:51If we move on to the last World Cup, Norway had Odegaard, setting the pace in that game against Brazil.
09:56And the Spanish team that won the World Cup had Pedri, had Dani, Dani Olmo, Fabian Ruiz, and also had
10:00Rodri, maybe the greatest midfielder of this generation.
10:04He can play as a number five, as a number eight, getting into the box, building from the back, scoring
10:17goals.
10:17In short, it was the full package from the number eight.
10:19And of course, to have a standout midfield, you need to have more than just good midfielders, right?
10:24So, I'm highlighting Bruno Guimarães here.
10:26Felipe Simonetti will upload a video here on the Football Maximo channel soon, talking about Gabinete.
10:31And it's also about his good form and the impact he has on Brazil's play.
10:34And there was Danilo as well in this equation, who played a good game as a more progressive midfielder, getting
10:40forward more and arriving in the box.
10:42And then, when we use the database from our fantasy here, we see that Danilo is among the top 10
10:48players in this Brazilian championship in the categories we have here.
10:52For example, goals.
10:53Danilo has nine goals.
10:55He has 64 more goals than the other midfielders in the Brazilian championship.
11:00In the category of shots and shots on target, he's better than 84% of the players in his position.
11:06In shots, he's better than 87%.
11:09So, there are several categories in the Brasileirao where Danilo also stands out.
11:15If we filter here for the midfielder position, look, Danilo will be fifth in this ranking.
11:20And he's only behind the midfielders in assists.
11:23He's better in shots, in shot percentage, in key passes, in passes, right?
11:28Overall, in defensive contributions.
11:30So, we're talking about a player who also has the potential, thinking about the Brazilian national team,
11:35to break out and be someone fundamental in this midfield alongside Bruno Guimarães.
11:39And if you like this little taste I gave you of our fantasy game, yes, it's ours.
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11:54And down here in the link in the description, you'll be able to go there, sign up, do the draft,
12:00set up the league with your friends, and also create your team right away, maybe with Danilo in the midfield.