There is a new patience to Brazil under Ancelotti. They build instead of chase. It is less fun for the first twenty minutes and a lot harder to play against for ninety.

They could not have drawn a tougher opener than Morocco, in Group C, on matchday one. It is the sort of game that tells you early whether the new approach survives contact with a side that can match them.

If the discipline and the old flair can live in the same team, Brazil win this thing. That is still an if, and it is the most interesting if of the group stage.