The Brazilian team will face Morocco on March 25 in a friendly in Tangier. It will be the first game for both teams since the World Cup in Qatar and the ‘canarinha’ will be led by Ramón Menezes, named interim coach today after leading the Under 20s to win the South American Championship of the category on Sunday, while the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) is still looking for a replacement before replacing Tite.
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Adenor Leonardo Bacchi ‘Tite’ resigned as Brazilian coach after the elimination last December from the Qatar 2022 World Cup after losing on penalties in the quarterfinals against Croatia.
The CBF announced in a statement that the ‘canarinha’ will be temporarily led by Menezes, who has led the Under 20 team to the South American title of the category, a title that Brazil has not won since 2011, without losing a single game.
No elite experience
Menezes, 50, has led a long list of modest Brazilian teams and before assuming the Under 20 team he had two short spells at the helm of Vasco da Gama in 2020 and Vitoria de Bahia in 2021.
Menezes is the provisional solution given the CBF’s delay in finding a replacement for Tite and in the midst of reports that the body wants a foreign coach but has not reached agreements with the technicians it has come into contact with so far.
Denied an agreement with Ancelotti
Last week the CBF denied that it has an agreement with the Real Madrid coach, the Italian Carlo Ancelotti, and affirmed that all the information disclosed about the possible replacement for Tite does not go beyond “speculation.”
The Brazilian press has been speculating for weeks about the possible successor to Tite and has mentioned as candidates the Spanish Luis Enrique, the French Zinedine Zidane or the Portuguese José Mourinho, Abel Ferreira and Jorge Jesus, in addition to Ancelotti.
The CBF described in its statement as “the beginning of a new cycle for the team” the friendly on March 25 that will be played at the Ibn Batouta stadium in Tangier, scene of the recent Club World Cup.
Just a match in the March window
The governing body of Brazilian soccer highlighted that the rival will be one of the semifinalists of the Qatar 2022 World Cup and clarified that Brazil will only play a friendly in the FIFA window of March since it will dedicate the rest of the time to improve the preparation of its players. .
“The window of FIFA dates for friendlies will be divided between the preparation of the players and the match with Morocco. For this reason, the CBF opted for a single friendly, but with a high competitive level,” according to the entity’s statement.
The president of the CBF, Ednaldo Rodrigues, assured that, for the start of a new cycle, the ‘canarinha’ will face a “strong adversary”, who reached the semifinals of the World Cup in Qatar, for which he considers that “it will be a good test for the team and a game that will arouse the interest of the fans”.
Morocco-Peru in the Metropolitan
On the other hand, Morocco has scheduled a second friendly in the March window since on the 28th they will face Peru at the Metropolitano stadium in Madrid.
