LIVE: Brazil vs France – FIFA World Cup 2026 warm up

Dressing room ready. New kit ready. And you? 💙

🇧🇷 Brazil 🆚 France 🇫🇷
⏰ Kick-off at 21:00 pic.twitter.com/9sO88L9s0Q

— French Team ⭐⭐ (@FrenchTeam) March 26, 2026

BRASIL DEFINIDO! 🇧🇷

Confira os 11 nomes escalados pelo Mister para enfrentar a França nesta quinta (26), às 17h (Brasília).

📺 TV GLOBO / SporTV / GE TV
🏟️ GILETTE STADIUM

VAMOS JUNTOS, VAMOS BRASIL! 🫵 pic.twitter.com/L4OO0Nl8HW

— brasil (@CBF_Futebol) March 26, 2026

The main focus for France, as ever, is Kylian Mbappe, and the national team captain was eager to feature on this trip after overcoming a knee injury to return for Real Madrid just last week.

There had been mounting fears in France that the 27-year-old’s fitness could become a real issue, but he said missing the World Cup or the end of the club season was never a concern.

“It is behind me. I was following a protocol, and I wanted to start playing again gradually. I hope to be able to play during this international break and to start being decisive again,” he said on Monday.

Neymar is now 34 and has not played for his country since October 2023, but his absence from the squad has still been one of the main talking points coming into these matches.

“It is a physical issue, not technical. With the ball, he is great, but he needs to improve physically,” Ancelotti said after being asked about the absence of the former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain superstar, now at Santos.

“Because in my eyes and those of my staff, he is not at 100 percent. So he needs to keep working to get back to 100 percent.”

Brazil laboured their way through South American World Cup qualifying with six defeats in 18 games as they finished fifth. Now, they are hoping the appointment of Carlo Ancelotti as coach will give them a genuine chance of winning a record-extending sixth World Cup, and first since 2002.

After this match, they will head to Orlando, Florida, for the next friendly on March 31 against Croatia, the team that ousted them from the 2022 World Cup in the quarterfinals.

The former world champions go head-to-head on Thursday at 20:00 GMT at the Gillette Stadium near Boston, Massachusetts.

The home of the National Football League (NFL) side New England Patriots is the venue for the first meeting of these teams in exactly 11 years, since Brazil came from behind to win 3-1 in a friendly at the Stadium of France in March 2015 with goals from Oscar, Neymar and Luiz Gustavo.

The head of Senegal’s football governing body has pledged to mount a “crusade” against a ⁠decision by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to strip the country’s Africa Cup of Nations title, as its legal team warned the case could reshape the world of football ⁠and undermine the principle that refereeing decisions are final.

“This decision cannot even be considered a true sporting justice ruling – it is so crude, so absurd, so irrational,” lawyer Juan de Dios Crespo Perez, representing Senegal’s ruling body, told a news conference on Thursday.

“It openly violates the laws of the ‌game and the principle that refereeing decisions are final.”

“In the face of this administrative robbery, the FSF refuses fatality. We will fight a moral and legal crusade,” Abdoulaye Fall, president of the Senegalese Football Federation (FSF), said.

The FSF lodged an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on ⁠Wednesday against the decision to overturn the result.

Senegal were ruled to ⁠have forfeited the final in Rabat on January 18 after walking off the pitch in protest at a potentially decisive penalty awarded to Morocco. They returned and scored a goal in extra time to win the game ⁠1-0.

Click here to read more.

Transgender women athletes are now excluded from women’s events at the Olympics after the IOC agreed to a new eligibility policy that aligns with US President Donald Trump’s executive order on sports ahead of the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics.

“Eligibility for any female category event at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event, including individual and team sports, is now limited to biological females,” the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said, noting this is to be determined by a mandatory gene test once in an athlete’s career.

It is unclear how many, if any, transgender women are competing at an Olympic level. No woman who transitioned from being born male competed at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, though New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard did at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 without winning a medal.

The new eligibility policy, which will apply at the July 2028 LA Olympics and at other Games going forward, aims to protect “fairness, safety and integrity in the female category”, the IOC said.

As we build up to kickoff, take a look at our latest Game Theory:

Hello, welcome and thanks for joining our live coverage of Brazil against France.

The match pits two of the international game’s strongest nations together in a friendly, as teams around the globe warm up for the FIFA World Cup 2026.

Brazil may be the record winners of the tournament – with five World Cups to their name – but they have not won the tournament since 2002.

France were the defeated finalists at Qatar 2022 and will be seeking to add to their two titles when they line up at this years edition.

I’m Kevin Hand, and I’ll bring you our live build-up, text commentary stream and photo coverage of the game.

Stick with us over the coming hours for all the news and analysis, but – in the meantime – click here for our preview.