Brazil coach Ancelotti warns not to underestimate Haiti ahead of World Cup match
While most fans and pundits view Brazil as the clear favorite in Friday’s game against Haiti, the team’s coach and one of its star players sought to temper those expectations.
Carlo Ancelotti, speaking at a press conference on Thursday at the Philadelphia Stadium, said the matchup between Haiti and Scotland was balanced and praised the Haitians’ physicality.
“Haiti is a good team, it played very well during the first match [a 1-0 loss to Scotland],” he said. “It is well organized. It has a lot of qualities. The players are excellent, very strong very fast.”
But while Les Grenadiers have a clear system of play and Brazil has to respect their way of playing, Ancelotti said Brazil is “focused on our game, our team, to do better.”
Haiti maybe an underdog, but Ancelotti and Brazilian defender Gabriel are not taking the game lightly.
Gabriel repeatedly reiterated that Friday’s match “is going to be a tough” one against the Caribbean nation, whose fans and players are longtime fans of Brazilian soccer.
“All matches are difficult,” Gabriel said. “It doesn’t matter who you are playing. It’s 11 players against 11 players. There is no easy match.”
Asked about Haitians’ admiration for Brazil soccer, including some of the players they will face Gabriel said “It is a privilege for us to play against Haiti. We are flattered and we hope this is going to be a great match.”
Ancelotti pointed out that a number of underdogs at this year’s World Cup have been showing great intensity.
“Here in the World Cup, all teams are highly motivated,” he added. “There are no matches where we know the results up front.”
After Brazil’s opener, Ancelotti came under heavy criticism, which he said was “sad” because what the players need are positive criticisms.
“You don’t win the World Cup on the opener, so we have to try and look for a solution.”
Still, he acknowledged that he doesn’t believe any of the Brazilian players played their best in the first half of the team’s opener against Morocco. “The pressure of wearing the Brazilian jersey has an influence [on the players],” he said.
Declining to give his lineup for Friday, he said they would play differently than they did in the opener.
“The team has to be resilient when things don’t go as planned,” he said. “We need to show the high quality of our team, put pressure at the right moment. I am confident Brazil will be a competitive team.”
Meanwhile, Haiti coach Sébastien Migné, has been talking to his players about tactics and staying the course.
“I am the leader of a group trying to make an entire nation proud,” he said. “We have a roadmap and my players know it and we want to advance to the round of 16. We want to remain in the race until the third match.”
Even still, he conceded on Thursday that he doesn’t even know what a win against Brazil would look or feel like, when one considers where Haiti currently is at and what the victory would mean to its people who in the last few weeks have held onto football for a bit of good news.
“First of all, I think it would be absolute madness in Haiti—plain and simple. When you commit to this profession—whether as a coach or a player—it’s to experience that kind of intense emotion. I’d say that as Haitians often face difficult times; football gives us the chance to experience powerful moments and great emotions,” he said. “I don’t even dare imagine a victory and what that would mean for the Haitian people. In any case, we’re going to give it our all so we have no regrets and the nation can be proud of this team.”
Migne said he had a chance to meet Ancelotti at the draw and his fitness coach worked with him in Paris and speaks very highly of him. “He’s pure class,” he sad of Ancelotti. “We’ll try to be as respectful as possible and prove ourselves to be a worthy opponent tomorrow.”
After Haiti’s lost to Scotland, Haitians launched several petitions demanding that FIFA sanction the referee. Migné didn’t want to look back but acknowledged that the officiating “was a major problem, as it may have cost us a point and what would have been Haiti’s first-ever point in a World Cup finals.”
“But that’s in the past now; there’s no use complaining—we have to look ahead, as always,” he said.
The Haitian players, he said, have “been surprising us from the very start. We knew the potential was there. When I took on this role, I knew exactly what I was getting into. I thought we had a real shot at World Cup qualification, but the lads have done even better than that. We didn’t play a single home game—something I hadn’t necessarily realized at the start—yet they managed to rise to the occasion. We saw it during the warm-up matches, and we saw it against Scotland. Now, we have to keep going, because what lies ahead is a massive challenge.”
Herald writer Michelle Kaufman contributed to this report.
This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 9:52 PM.
