England facing off against Brazil in Rio de Janeiro means that five Chelsea players were in international friendly action on Sunday. Ultimately, everyone involved had to settle for a 2-2 draw.
Brazil were by far the better team in the first half. Oscar was incredible, demolishing England whenever he had the ball -- and even forcing Leighton Baines to run away in shame with half an hour gone, which forced Ashley Cole's introduction. Had the hosts been better at finishing, he might have had two or three assists before the break. As it was he ended up leaving the match before the first goal was scored, coming off for Lucas Moura with 56 minutes gone.
David Luiz played the full 90 minutes, and did reasonably well. He stuffed England's attacks a few times in the first half, and although there were some lapses he was by no means responsible for the two goals conceded, both of which were hopeful strikes from range. There were a couple of over-hit passes, and a couple of brilliant ones. All in all, a pretty average performance.
Gary Cahill started at centre back and had to do a lot of defending as Brazil constantly looked to push forward. He didn't do badly at all, but never looked wholly comfortable as the likes of Neymar, Hulk and Fred caused problems. Frank Lampard also did more defending than attacking -- his finest moment was probably when he nicked the ball away from Oscar just outside the box -- but he still got forward on a few occasions and his passing started some of England's better moves.
Cole had to deal with first Oscar and then Lucas Moura, and both gave him a very tough time. It wasn't a classic performance from the left back, but there weren't any catastrophic mistakes either.
* * *
While I was watching Brazil, reported Chelsea target Andre Schurrle was starting for Germany against the USA. The Germans didn't exactly cover themselves in glory, losing 4-3. I haven't gotten around to watching that match yet, but Steve did, and here's what he had to say:
Andre Schurrle started for Germany, but was subbed off at some point in the second half. I honestly didn't even notice when he was subbed off, as his involvement in the game remained about the same. I'm still laughing about this though
Promising!