Belgium - 0, Brazil - 2 Brazil have given England food for thought but this need not turn into an attack of indigestion when the teams meet in Shizuoka on Friday in the World Cup quarter-finals.

Sven Goran Eriksson's players, along with the coaching staff, sat in the Wing Stadium in Kobe yesterday as the Brazilians eventually won their second round game against Belgium in some style but with rather less comfort overall.

England saw how they might go out of the tournament to the four-times World Cup winners but also saw enough to realise how they might reach the semi-finals.

Belgium were a mature team built around the technique, guile and experience of the 33-year-old Marc Wilmots.

Yesterday a system not dissimilar to the way England will set about Friday's quarter-final disrupted Brazil's rhythm, forced them onto the back foot and with less wasteful finishing could have knocked them out.

Ultimately Brazil won through a piece of stunning individualism from Rivaldo, albeit aided by a defender's deflection, and, at the last, Ronaldo's fifth goal in four matches.

England should find the means to take their encounter with Brazil on from the point early in the second half here when Belgium had forced Felipe Scolari's side onto the back foot. During this period the marvellous Wilmots, having had a headed goal disallowed in the first half for a push on Roque Junior, saw one shot go just wide and another kept out by a flying save from Marcos.

Wilmots later said Jamaican referee Peter Prendergast admitted he had wrongly disallowed the goal. "I asked the referee and he said he had seen the pictures at half-time and that there hadn't been a foul, but it was too late. But I don't hold it against him, that's life, that's football. He has to react quickly."

Even after they had fallen behind Belgium continued to make chances only to miss them with irksome regularity.

Yet the fact that opportunities were created will have convinced England that whatever else may happen on Friday they should score a goal or two. There was little in Brazil's performance either to suggest that Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes cannot guard the central approaches to goal as well against Brazil as they did against Argentina. So competently did Yves Vanderhaeghe and Johan Walem do a similar job that the Brazilians started to find themselves being out-manoeuvred by Walem's searching passes to the wings, and in particular Mbo Mpenza on Belgium's right.

The danger to England may come not from such predictable sources as Roberto Carlos or Cafu neither of whom was impressive last night, or even Rivaldo and Ronaldo. The player who did most to take the play back towards Belgium was Denilson, who replaced Juninho just before the hour.

Unlike its famous predecessors, this Brazilian side does not indulge itself in taking on opponents with the ball. Slick passing and shrewdly timed runs are more likely to confuse opposing defences.

Denilson, however, was prepared to have a man-to-man battle of wits with Jacky Peeters who, like Nico Van Kerckhoven on the other side of Belgium's defence, had been consistently supporting their attack. Much may depend on the outcome of any similar meeting in Shizuoka between Denilson and Danny Mills.

Yet if Rio Ferdinand and Sol Campbell, aided by Butt and Scholes, can isolate Ronaldo as successfully as Robert Waseige's team did for much of this game then England will be in less danger of having to chase the play.

Yet there will still be those moments of brilliant Brazilian improvisation which confound the best defences. One arrived after 67 minutes last night when Rivaldo chested down a cross from Ronaldinho, turning away from a defender as he did so, controlled it on an instep and let the ball bounce once before driving a shot into the net from 20 yards.

The fact that the ball was helped by a deflection off Timmy Simons did not spoil the joy of the moment. Ronaldo's goal, three minutes from the end, followed a low cross from Kleberson, whose break on the right caught the Belgians pushing up.

This is still not the old Ronaldo any more than it is the old Brazil. But for Eriksson and England the fact that he is scoring regularly again will be warning enough.

Substitutes

Brazil: Denilson for Juninho (57 mins), Kleberson for Ronaldinho (81) Ricardinho for Rivaldo (90). Belgium: Sonck for Peeters (73)

Yellow cards

Brazil: Carlos 28. Belgium: Vanderhaeghe 24