The Selecao had already secured their place at the World Cup later this year but made light work of a Paraguay side who are now seven games without a goal or a win and now cannot qualify for Qatar 2022.

Raphinha of Leeds scored inside 93 seconds only for the goal to be disallowed for handball following a lengthy VAR consultation. The winger would get his goal with 28 minutes played, wriggling between two Paraguayan defenders and finishing with aplomb.

Philippe Coutinho doubled Brazil’s advantage with a superb long-range strike shortly after the hour, and as the hosts continued to dominate they added gloss to the scoreline with two goals in the final four minutes, Ajax’s Antony and Rodrygo of Real Madrid the scorers.

Brazil boss Tite made plenty of changes to his team but opted to stick with Thiago Silva and his former PSG colleague Marquinhos in the heart of the defence, and our man enjoyed an easy night’s work before he returns to London. Brazil had a 76 per cent share of possession and Paraguay barely tested Ederson, registering just a couple of shots on target.

Brazil, unbeaten in this qualification campaign and now 61 games undefeated on home soil in qualifying, play Chile and Bolivia in the next international break in March.

In the early hours of Thursday morning UK time, Christian Pulisic’s USA host Honduras in the final international action for Chelsea players for a couple of months.