Brazil - 2 England - 1WORLD CUP 2002/Brazil v England: Felipe Scolari turned to face the camera directly at the end of what turned out to be a desperately anti-climactic win over England and pleaded with the people of Brazil to "believe" in a side now on the verge of its third successive appearance in a World Cup final.

As he did so, a few of the many hard hearts there may finally have softened to a man who has taken so much criticism these past few weeks.

When he added that this side could "do a lot better", though, he was probably much more in tune with the thinking of the folks back home.

The Brazilian coach, as it happens, didn't intend the latter comment as a criticism of yesterday's performance at Shizuoka, where his players did just about enough to deserve the win, thanks to the their vastly superior attacking game and, of course, two fine goals from Rivaldo and Ronaldinho.

The intention seemed to be to let the nation know he believes his side is capable of winning a fifth world title, an idea many supporters there must be now coming around to, if only because of the rather patchy quality of their few remaining rivals.

A good portion of the English media had been so bold as to bill this game as the real final, but their optimistic assessments of their own side's strengths were based only on the defeat of Argentina and the rather flattering scoreline at the end of the Denmark match.

The ineffectiveness of Sven-Goran Eriksson's men during the second half of the match against Sweden and through almost all of the Nigerian game seemed to have been conveniently forgotten.

Sadly for them, yesterday's performance tended to highlight all of the deficiencies that had been so conveniently swept under the carpet.

Eriksson described the game as "a missed opportunity to go to a semi-final" and his side did briefly seem to be in with a serious shout of making the last four for only the third time in their history after Michael Owen had given them the lead.

Nicky Butt, Danny Mills and Emile Heskey had all been involved in the build-up to the goal, but a key contribution had also been made by the Brazilian defender Lucio, whose poor initial contact with Heskey's chipped pass let the Liverpool player in one-on-one with Marcos.

With a quarter of the game gone, the English had the upper hand.

But, the goal aside, the Brazillian goalkeeper was never really threatened during a first half in which his defence had clearly adopted a more cautious approach than in the second-round game against the Belgians.

After the goal, Kleberson - in for Juninho - dropped back to help Gilberto Silva contain Heskey and Owen and, from that point on, the Englishmen were rarely heard from again - prompting speculation Owen had not really been fit enough to play.

Brazil's more celebrated strikeforce were, on the other hand, much more prominent in the proceedings with the goalscorers causing difficulties for Rio Ferdinand and his defence.

Early on, the central midfield partnership of Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt had had some success in disrupting the Brazilian approach-work, but they too faded from sight as the contest went on.

That left the back four, of whom Danny Mills was again the best performer, to hold the show together as best they could.

And they managed well enough in spite of the quick thinking and equally nippy footwork of Ronaldo and Co., until first-half injury-time when Ronaldinho skipped gracefully through midfield before setting up Rivaldo on the right side of the box for the equaliser.

Neither Sol Campbell nor David Seaman could do enough to prevent the Barcelona striker scoring his fifth of the tournament, although, if you were to look for someone to blame, David Beckham, who had backed out of a challenge in midfield as the move started, was probably a stronger candidate.

On a day when several England players simply failed to perform, the Manchester United midfielder was especially disappointing.

Five minutes into the second half, Ronaldhinho scored his side's second of the day with a brilliantly-struck 30-yard free-kick that sailed into the top right corner as Seaman desperately tried to get back on to his line.

When the scorer was then sent off seven minutes later for catching Mills's ankle with his studs, there seemed to be hope for the English, but, even with the extra man, they failed to raise their game.

While Scolari left two up front in order to maintain some pressure on the English defence, Eriksson followed Mick McCarthy's formula for a fightback by bringing on Darius Vassell and Teddy Sheringham and switching to 3-4-3.

The players, though, simply lacked the required sense of urgency and, during the closing 10 minutes, it was hard to believe that this was an England side that needed a goal to stay in the competition.

They never once threatened to get it but limped tamely out instead, leaving Brazil to take on either Turkey or Senegal for a place in what would be their third successive final.

It seems that the question now is not whether Scolari's men can go on and win it, but whether they can actually do it without ever having to play especially well.

SUBSTITUTES

England: Sheringham for A Cole (80 mins); Dyer for Sinclair (56); Vassell for Owen (79). Brazil: Edilson for Ronaldo (70).

YELLOW CARDS

England: Scholes 75, Ferdinand 86.

RED CARDS

Brazil: Ronaldinho 57.