Wayne Rooney curls in England's second goal against Brazil at the Maracanã to remind the world of his talents. Photograph: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images
The really strange thing about this game was that there were long periods when it was tempting to watch England through the gaps in your fingers. Roy Hodgson's team were outpassed, often outplayed, but crucially not outdone and might even have pulled off an eccentric win courtesy of wonderfully taken goals from the substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Wayne Rooney.
For Hodgson, it ended up a satisfying night's work, particularly bearing in mind the depleted nature of his squad. Yet it was also one of those occasions that football sometimes throws up when a team's supporters can feel both uplifted and deflated. England had been abysmal for the opening hour, so drab and careless, and fortunate not to go behind long before Fred opened the scoring after 57 minutes.
Oxlade-Chamberlain's equaliser came 10 minutes later, thumping in a brilliant low drive for the outstanding moment so far in his young career. Rooney's goal was even more majestic and would have won the game but for Paulinho hooking in a fine equaliser four minutes later. Yet the flurry of goals felt almost like a deception considering how England had played for the vast majority of this match.
However it is dressed up, it is dispiriting in the extreme to see a side that plays with this much carelessness. They deserve acclaim for having the wit and gumption to do something about it but it would be remiss to ignore the undistinguished moments and focus only on the better ones.
This, remember, is not one of the great Brazil teams and the Maracanã was a mutinous place at times during its re-opening night. Luiz Felipe Scolari's team are 19th in Fifa's rankings, their worst-ever position. Scolari's substitutions were jeered by the crowd and the team's nerve looked fragile during that helter-skelter 15-minute spell in the second half when England, almost out of nowhere, turned the game upside down.
Yet Brazil should really have buried their opponents inside the first half and would surely have won with something to spare but for some splendid goalkeeping from Joe Hart and their own erratic finishing. In total, Brazil accumulated 29 shots (20 on target) compared to England's eight. Neymar, such an elusive opponent, probably lost count of the number of times Hart denied him just in the opening 45 minutes. Hodgson's experimentation with a new system was not working and it was jarring to see all the old England failings - full of competitive spirit, short of refinement.
Hodgson, to give him his due, had abandoned the 4-4-2 formation that had prompted Gary Lineker to talk of "dark ages" football, replacing it with a 4-1-2-3 system featuring Michael Carrick as the deepest-lying midfielder, Phil Jones partnering Frank Lampard in the centre, with Theo Walcott and James Milner shuttling up and down the wings alongside Rooney in attack. More often than not, however, it morphed into an unimaginative 4-5-1, with Walcott and Milner dropping back and the team just trying to hang on and muddle through.
Hodgson is right when he says the difference between the various systems is marginal and that too much is made of it sometimes. What is most important is a team's ability to take care of the ball and play with fluency and options.
It was a blur of yellow and blue for the first hour and, at the heart of it, Neymar demonstrated why it was his face on the giant screens that was cheered the loudest before the match.
The Jones experiment had limited success, Carrick was often over-run and the wide players, particularly Milner, offered little cutting edge. Walcott's final pass was poor and Lampard gave the ball away more times than he will want to remember.
Yet England also deserve great credit for the way they kept their composure after Hernanes, a half-time substitute, had curled the ball against the crossbar after 56 minutes and Fred followed up the rebound to fire in the first goal.
What followed could certainly not have been predicted considering the way the game had been heading. First, Oxlade-Chamberlain exchanged passes with Lampard and Rooney, pulled back his right boot and struck a low 20-yard shot with equal measures of power and precision. It finished in the bottom-right corner of Júlio César's goal – and, suddenly, Brazil seemed to switch off.
Neymar had started to drift out of the game and the crowd were becoming increasingly fractious with Scolari by the time Rooney picked up the ball in the inside-left channel, cut inside and reminded us of that brilliant and too often concealed talent. Until this point Rooney had worked diligently but been starved of service, playing on the edges.
This, however, was a moment of brilliance, opening up his right foot then picking out the top corner with a curling, diagonal shot that took a faint deflection off the substitute Fernando. Here was the 36th goal of his England career and it was difficult to think of any better.
Paulinho's goal was another pearl, lashing in a volley from Lucas's right-wing delivery and nobody could argue Brazil did not deserve it. England had produced two extraordinary moments while looking ordinary.
They had illuminated the Maracanã in the second half, and stunk it out in the first. If nothing else, however, it was a break from the old mantra of first-half-good, second-half-not-so-good
