India held Brazil for 27 minutes, and Samuel Lino’s double finished a 4-0 night in Kolkata
Estevao and Pedro scored before half-time and substitute Samuel Lino added two more as Brazil won the first meeting between the two countries at the Salt Lake Stadium.
Oct 4, 2026
India held Brazil for 27 minutes. That was the good part of the first senior men’s meeting between the two countries, and once Estevao found the net in the 28th minute the five-time world champions ran out 4-0 winners at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on Saturday, 3 October.
Pedro added a second before half-time, and Samuel Lino came off the bench to score twice, the last of them five minutes into stoppage time.
Gurpreet kept it level, then Estevao broke it
India did not start like a side ranked 138th in the world against the team ranked fifth. They had a few decent runs at goal early on. Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, captaining the side, made a brave save to deny Vinicius Junior in the eighth minute, and Marquinhos, unmarked from a corner in the 15th minute, glanced a free header across the face of goal.
Then Estevao cut in from the right and beat Gurpreet with his left foot. Pedro hit the post with a header soon after and did not have to wait long for his goal, scoring with a low shot from the right of the box in the 42nd minute. 2-0 at the break.
Manvir Singh gave India their best moment ten minutes into the second half, a powerful strike that forced a good save from the Brazil goalkeeper. Three minutes later Lino cut inside and bent a right-footed shot past Prabhsukhan Gill, who had replaced Gurpreet at half-time. Ryan Williams came closest to an Indian goal, only for Mauro Junior to clear his effort off the line, and Lino added the fourth deep in stoppage time.
India finished with nine shots, three of them on target, according to myKhel. That is not nothing against a squad that still had Vinicius, Marquinhos and Danilo in it.
Jamil: “two or three of them were soft goals”
Khalid Jamil did not dress it up. He felt his side lacked mental toughness, especially among the replacements. “The players who were substituted in were not up to the mark. Maybe they lacked belief, and that’s why they have to be mentally strong,” he said.
He was also asked about Gurpreet, and he defended his captain. “You can’t blame one player. The goalkeeper tried his best. I think two or three of them were soft goals, due to individual error,” Jamil said. “You can’t blame the goalkeeper solely, even the defender didn’t close down quickly. It was a collective mistake.”
He was happier going forward, naming Williams, Sahal Abdul Samad and Manvir. “I think we looked good offensively. Midfield did very well,” he said.
Half-empty for Brazil
The stadium holds about 65,000 and it was around half full. The cheapest tickets cost 999 rupees and went within minutes, but the higher categories ran from 3,500 to 25,000 rupees, and the pricing took most of the blame for the gaps in the stands. Brazil’s yellow shirts were all over the seats that were filled.
India do not have long to put it right. Uruguay, two-time world champions with Federico Valverde, Ronald Araujo and Darwin Nunez in their squad, are at the same ground on Tuesday, 6 October.