{"id":853529,"date":"2026-03-27T09:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T09:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/853529\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T09:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T09:30:16","slug":"hugo-ekitike-makes-world-cup-statement-in-blockbuster-clash-with-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/853529\/","title":{"rendered":"Hugo Ekitike makes World Cup statement in blockbuster clash with Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hugo Ekitike scored for France in a 2-1 win over Brazil, and in doing so could have cemented his place as a starter for Les Bleus during this summer&#8217;s World Cup<\/p>\n<p>22:25, 26 Mar 2026Updated 07:30, 27 Mar 2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Hugo Ekitike and Ibrahima Konate \" loading=\"eager\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0_GettyImages-2268513628.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p aria-label=\"Hugo Ekitike scored for France in a game that Ibrahima Konate also played in\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">Hugo Ekitike scored for France in a game that Ibrahima Konate also played in(Image: 2026 Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Hugo Ekitike continued his encouraging season as he scored during France&#8217;s friendly win over Brazil in the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The two former world champions met in Massachusetts as they gear up for a tilt at this summer&#8217;s World Cup in North America. <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.liverpool.com\/all-about\/hugo-ekitike\" rel=\"follow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">Ekitike<\/a> was named in the starting line-up for the game, and it was a starting line-up that featured a host of regular names, which bodes well for Ekitike&#8217;s chances of figuring heavily during the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.liverpool.com\/\" rel=\"follow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">Liverpool<\/a> forward rewarded France boss Didier Deschamps for the faith shown in him as he scored France&#8217;s second goal of the game during the second half.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" data-tmdatatrack=\"read-more\" data-tmdatatrack-articleid=\"33668754\" data-tmdatatrack-source=\"editorial\" href=\"https:\/\/www.liverpool.com\/liverpool-fc-news\/features\/jurgen-klopp-breaks-silence-mohamed-33668754\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jurgen Klopp breaks silence on Mohamed Salah&#8217;s Liverpool exit and sends message to fans<\/a>READ MORE: <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" data-tmdatatrack=\"read-more\" data-tmdatatrack-articleid=\"33668270\" data-tmdatatrack-source=\"editorial\" href=\"https:\/\/www.liverpool.com\/liverpool-fc-news\/features\/liverpool-players-staff-opinions-mohamed-33668270\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Liverpool players and staff opinions of Mohamed Salah behind the scenes emerge<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The finish was a lovely one, as he latched onto Michael Olise&#8217;s through ball before prodding a dinked finish over Ederson in the Brazil goal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The game ended in a 2-1 win for France, as Bremer pulled a goal back for Brazil toward the end of the game after Kylian Mbappe had scored the opening goal in the first half.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Ekitike&#8217;s appearance in the game came after he limped out of Liverpool&#8217;s loss to Brighton after just a few minutes last weekend.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ekitike suffered an injury in Liverpool's last game\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0_GettyImages-2267222228-1.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p aria-label=\"Ekitike suffered an injury in Liverpool's last game\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">Ekitike suffered an injury in Liverpool&#8217;s last game<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Coincidentally, Ekitike scored the goal against a different goalkeeper than the one that ordinarily mans the sticks for the Selecao: Liverpool teammate Alisson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Both Ekitike and Alisson were injury doubts following Liverpool&#8217;s 2-1 loss at Brighton last weekend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Alisson missed the Premier League game due to his injury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;Alisson will definitely be out during the international break, and let&#8217;s see afterwards,&#8221; said Arne Slot after the match.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;Hugo, I think he could play tomorrow if he needed to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;It was a dead leg, as you call it here, I think.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;Brighton did what we expected.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;If you face a team that has only had 62 hours of rest and the first thing you do is make it an intense game, play the first duels, play tough duels \u2013 nothing wrong with the duels, by the way \u2013 but unfortunately it was a collision, and that led to Hugo going out.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hugo Ekitike scored for France in a 2-1 win over Brazil, and in doing so could have cemented&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[1050,94,5759,763,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-853529","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-alisson","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-hugo-ekitike","11":"tag-liverpool-fc","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116300443189014386","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}