England and Brazil to face off in friendly at Wembley in March

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s soccer confederation announced its national team will play a friendly against England at Wembley in March.

The contest will be England’s first against a South American team in six years. The last time the two teams played in 2017, the match ended 0-0.

Brazil had already announced a friendly against Spain in March. South American national teams have long complained about the lack of a calendar to test themselves against European rivals.

“The objective is to always have Brazilian national team games against former world champions so we can have matches of a high technical level,” Ednaldo Rodrigues, the president of the country’s soccer confederation, said in a statement on Monday.

Later in November, Brazil will play two tough rounds of World Cup qualifying - the first at Colombia and the second against defending champion Argentina at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.