According to the locals, it’s the bar capital of the world, with more than 12,000 catering for the five million citizens of Brazil’s third city. Others will recall Belo Horizonte as the scene of England’s most humiliating football defeat, when a hearse driver and teacher from the US stunned the national team at the 1950 World Cup. But if the 5,000 or so English ticket holders expected here for England’s final group game against Costa Rica in a few weeks’ time look a little more closely, they may remember it for something else. As is the case across Brazil, peer behind the mask and another reality stares back at you.
