Brazil 3-1 Croatia: Thiago and Martinelli on target in late victory

Igor Thiago and Gabriel Martinelli came off the bench to score two late goals and help Brazil to a 3-1 victory over Croatia in an international friendly at Camping World Stadium.

Danilo’s first-half strike had been cancelled out in the 84th minute by Lovro Majer, but Thiago’s first goal for his country and Martinelli’s late finish completed the late turnaround.

Having lost to France last time out, Carlo Ancelotti’s side started brightly, and only a smart stop from Dominik Livakovic stopped Danilo from opening the scoring early on.

Livakovic then denied Joao Pedro and Matheus Cunha, but Brazil’s dominance told in first-half stoppage time when Danilo fired into the roof of the net from the edge of the box.

Croatia did, however, improve after the break and drew level six minutes from time through Majer, who slid in to poke Toni Fruk’s cross from the right into the box past Bento.

But Brazil were awarded an 88th-minute penalty when Endrick was fouled by Josip Sutalo, with Brentford striker Thiago stepping up to coolly dispatch into the bottom-left corner.

And the win was sealed by Martinelli, who raced on to Endrick’s pass in behind, before taking a touch and crashing a left-footed effort past Livakovic to seal an impressive triumph.

FIM DE JOGO EM ORLANDO!

3-1

DANILO
IGOR THIAGO
GABRIEL MARTINELLI pic.twitter.com/NtNcNRs4r1

— brasil (@CBF_Futebol) April 1, 2026

Data Debrief: Vinicius helps exact World Cup revenge

Brazil’s meeting with Croatia was their first since losing in the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup, but they delivered a dominant performance in what was their final match before announcing their squad for FIFA’s flagship competition in the summer.

Ancelotti’s men finished with an expected goals (xG) total of 2.03 from their 13 attempts compared to Croatia’s 0.95 from their 12 shots, but it proved to be Brazil’s quality in the final third that was the difference.

Vinicius Junior ended with team-high totals for touches in the opposition box (three), chances created (four) and passes in the final third (11), while only Luiz Henrique (four) completed more dribbles than the Real Madrid forward’s two.