The boys from Brazil beat England in friendly at Wembley

 The boys from Brazil beat England in friendly at Wembley.

Many of us have followed the Brazilian football team for as long as we can remember. We do so because it is both an enormous privilege and honour, an experience that transcends anything else you'd care to think of. Brazil, as we all know, are the most stunning, satisfying, magical and beautiful side in the world, an international assembly of the sublime, football at its dazzling and dizzying best, a force of nature, supernatural at times, almost too good to be true. There can be none like them on their day, a peerless sporting spectacle who almost defy superlatives, pronouns, verbs and metaphors.

Last night at Wembley Brazil arrived at Wembley rather like learned university lecturers who always seem to derive great delight on passing on vast sums of knowledge to their attentive students. For Brazil, football is much more than an art form, more of a science, an intriguing exposition of the very best techniques and styles that the game has to offer. Once again we saw a Brazilian team at their most exquisite, expressive, natural and spontaneous, a dreamlike sequence of the easy going and free flowing.

For the first time in 20 matches England were finally beaten by opponents for whom the daunting prospect of playing at Wembley might have proved too much. Admittedly, the quality of the opposition has hardly been intimidating in recent years. The relatively simple act of qualifying for this summer's European Championships in Germany must surely come under the closest scrutiny since, apart from Italy, the rest of England's group bore an uncanny resemblance to a class of infant school children about to be faced with a multiplication table or the alphabet.

When Gareth Southgate leads out his England side to face Serbia in their opening group game we will begin to recognise the outline of a team who may be fancied as one of the favourites to win Euro 2024. Then England are matched up with Denmark, who once beat Sir Bobby Robson's England in Robson's first ever game where the Danes shocked Wembley with a 1-0 win. Then there was a hugely convincing 3-0 victory in a World Cup group stage victory in 2002 where Japan and South Korea were genial hosts. But the Danes have always been a tough nut to crack for England teams over the years and this is no different.

Finally England will meet Slovenia and by then we should know whether the Three Lions have made either comfortable or awkward progress into the last 16 of another Euros. The chances are that most of us will be biting our nails, clenching our teeth and just hiding behind the sofa. We are talking about the England football team here and nerves are bound to be frazzled, mountains will be made out of molehills and blood pressures will be at their highest. This is not going to be straightforward because it never is and besides England love to be challenging and laborious when it should be just simple and logical.

On the first spring evening at Wembley, Gareth Southgate returned to the business of complicating matters although it was Brazil and this was no leisurely picnic. This may have been a friendly but you often get the impression that England just like to present themselves with insuperable obstacles. Brazil of course are still one of the purest and most aesthetically pleasing to the eye team in the world. They caress a football, treating it with all the affectionate tenderness of a parent telling their child a comforting bedtime story. The ball is a pleasant object of idolatry, something to be passed around so many times that it almost feels like some communal or spiritual act. It is something to be admired.

Not for nothing are Brazil are five times winners of the Jules Rimet Cup and, although not at their most unbeatable in 1974, 1978 or quite possibly 1982 and then 1986, there were moments when you sighed with stunned admiration at some of the football that is still hard wired into them from birth. The 1970 World Cup class of joy and magnificence will probably never be seen or matched ever again. Pele was at his most incomparable and the likes of Gerson, Tostao, Rivelino and Carlos Alberto sound like the sweetest musical you're ever likely to hear in a West End theatre, a side perfectly proportioned, impeccably well mannered, balanced as a pair of scales, gorgeously imaginative with passing patterns from heaven.  

As for England the defence that will have to be at their most vigilant and ultra cautious during Euro 2024 did look reasonably secure and sturdy. Harry Maguire still has rushes of blood to his head when he thinks an attacker couldn't possibly threaten his equilibrium. Maguire is one of those compact and commanding central defenders who occasionally reminds you of former Manchester City and Sunderland centre half Dave Watson. John Stones, the Manchester City central pivot, still looks very worldly and enlightened as a ball carrying defender doing the right things at the right time. Ben Chilwell joined the England attack commendably and consistently but even he seemed to be star struck by the Brazilians.

And then there was that hard core of England's attacking line up that Gareth Southgate will be trusting enough to begin the first Euro 2024 opening group stage against Serbia. The new boy Anthony Gordon,  Newcastle's quick footed winger, grasped his England debut with some relish, gingerly breezing past defenders, dropping his shoulders audaciously every so often before losing possession in vital areas. Gordon is one of those willowy and sinewy footballers, cunning and deception on his mind but still learning the ropes of international football.

It was heartening and uplifting to see Phil Foden, one of Pep Guardiola's reliable men, flicking the ball impudently past opponents and then cleverly moving into space for the sumptuous pass for either Gordon or Jude Bellingham to run into. Foden is clearly besotted with the game's finer points and technicalities and when both he, Gordon, Bellingham and Ollie Watkins tried to open up Brazilian's watertight defence with subtle intricacies outside their opponents penalty area it reminded you of a group of men desperately trying to find the right code for a bank vault.

With England captain Harry Kane out injured for both the game against Brazil and Tuesday's evening friendly against Belgium, England looked leg weary, too over elaborate at times and counting down the days to Germany during the summer. Jude Bellingham is of course one of England's most remarkable talents and the one Southgate must be hoping will have the same dramatic impact that Paul Gascoigne had during Euro 96 in England. Bellingham is stylish, debonair, effortlessly instinctive and Real Madrid can hardly believe what a priceless commodity they may have in their ranks.

The Chelsea playmaker Conor Gallagher looks as though he may have the necessary qualities to act as a buffer to the once again authoritative Declan Rice. But there were times when Gallagher, although always progressive and proactive, didn't quite have the wherewithal to pick out a white shirt in the right position. Gallagher may start England's first group stage match against Serbia but then you're reminded that there is still competition for his place in the side.

As for Brazil, this was more or less an exhibition match for the team who once took the game to an altogether more exotic dimension when Pele scored one of those astonishing goals that propelled him as a 17 year old to Olympian heights. The South Americans of course blew away Sweden contemptuously in the 1958 World Cup Final. Admittedly there aren't any more Garrinchas, Va Vas or Didis, Socrates, Zico or more latterly Ronaldos and Ronaldinos in the composition of a Brazilian side but that would have been asking for too much.

But we did have Vinicius Junior, Lucas Paqueta, West Ham's voluptuous midfield playmaker, a player of refinement and breeding, floating and flitting with menacing authority in the middle of the pitch. Then there was Bruno Guimaraes, shrewd, elegant and always visionary, probing and prompting Brazil with perception and foresight. Both Wendell, Rodrygo, Bremer and the brilliantly intelligent wing play of Raphinha who once graced a Leeds United shirt, all shifted around the white shirts of England with a smoothness and dainty dexterity that we've come to expect from a Brazil team.

The only goal of the game came almost unexpectedly for Brazil. The game itself seemed to be drifting aimlessly towards a goal-less draw. But then a series of quickfire passes on the half way line ended up  with a nicely judged through ball from Vinicius Junior. Brazil had already made a substitution and how inspired that was. Another precocious 17 year old Endrick latched onto the ball and the ball took a sharp rebound. Somewhat fortuitously, Endrick, barely out of football's baby teething age, slotted the ball into an empty net although a brief interlude for VAR and offside showed that legality was on Endrick's side.

And so it is that we proceed to Belgium on Tuesday evening for another England dress rehearsal. Here we have world football's classic underachievers. Belgium have always been dark horses rather than victorious thoroughbreds. They still have Kevin De Bruyne and some of football's greatest technicians but Belgian flair and fantasy never seem to flourish on the biggest stage. Of course they'll be in Germany during the summer for Euro 2024 but the chances are that some of football's more superior powerhouses will inevitably be doing their utmost to steal Belgium's thunder.

Brazil, for their part, will be enjoying their first victory over England for quite a while. A small knot of yellow and green flags were fluttering joyously in one corner of Wembley's vast open spaces. It was a night for samba, flamenco if the mood took them. The man in a long, dark coat stood impassively by his technical dug out. Gareth Southgate, England's modest and self deprecating manager, just took it on the chin. World Cups and Euros have almost given way to memorable nights but yesterday evening perhaps he might have been thinking about what might have been. A penny for your thoughts Gareth.