I slept maybe four hours in total last on Thursday night. An hour at the airport, 90 minutes on the flight (not great sleep) and another 90 minutes at our hotel in Recife. We were very fortunate that they gave us a room even though we arrived around about 6.30 in the morning.

Originally, the plan had been to spend three nights here in Recife, but the decison to take in the England v Uruguay game in Sao Paulo put paid to that. I've no regrets about going. It was enlightening to get a feel of Sao Paulo, the stadium was worth witnessing a game in and the match itself was a piece of pure drama in England's World Cup history, joining venues such as Leon, the Bernabeu, the Azteca, Turin, St Etienne, Shizuoka, Gelsenkirchen and Bloemfontein in witnessing matches that eliminated the nation from the World Cup (I am writing after the Italy v Costa Rica match). Disappointing as it was, it was a moment in the football watching life that will live long in the memory. A grey, dank day, Adam said on reaching the stadium area he had a bad feeling about it, and so it proved.

The following day he heard from a friend of his that a group of England fans leaving the stadium after the game were targeted by local thugs, and one had his earlobe bitten off. The police weren't interested. The news hardly enhanced our positive view of Sao Paulo, and much as it was an experience to have been at the game, we felt relieved to have got out of the place without suffering unduly aside from not developing much liking for the place. We had some sympathy for the England fans that had spent a few days there, and hope Belo Horizonte is a nicer place to spend time.

Of course, the corresponding group game offered potential salvation if Italy could beat Costa Rica. Due to our needing to rest up, we were a little complacent about leaving for the stadium in good time. We caught a taxi at approximately 10.15 and did not get dropped off until almost midday, the game starting at 1pm. We had not done our research on this one. When the plane was descending to land earlier in the morning, I spotted the stadium and could see that it was isolated,surrounded by forested areas, but I had no idea it was quite so far from Recife itself. We were in heavy traffic in the taxi for the first 20 minutes before I spotted a road sign that informed us the stadium was 29km away. The first half of the remaining distance was fairly tortuous, mainly due to traffic lights, but the taxi was at least able to use a bus lane in stretches, so for anyone going by private car, I can only imagine the journey was even longer than the 90 minutes it took us. It was the equivalent of building a stadium in Luton and claiming it to be London.

With the cities of Brazil having such huge populations, and only the haves living in tower blocks, the places spread outwards rather than upwards, hence the huge nature of them. Sprawling urban areas, with most buildings either one or two storeys. And traffic consequently spread far and wide. It's an accepted fact of life, although God alone knows what the air quality does to those that live by the roadside, and indeed work there too - many shops and stalls are situated next to very busy and very clogged roads.

We reached the area of the stadium at approximately 11.45. The taxi driver looked as if he was going to drive without a meter when we set off, until we were insistent on him using his 'taxi-metro' - a handy piece of vocabulary I learned before leaving the UK. Still, it was only 80 real for a very long trip - about £25. Split three ways, a bargain. We had three spares for this game and another three for the next one to be held in Recife, between Mexico and Croatia. I thought time might be a bit tight, but by approaching a guy holding a sign requesting tickets, we shifted two for the game we were here to see, and then by holding up a piece of paper stating 'Tickets - Italia/Costa Rica - Mexico/Croatia' managed to shift the other spare for this game. Both buyers paid in US dollars, which Adam can use. We got face value and were delighted. We spent five minutes trying to shift the Mexico tickets and decided to head in with 30 minutes to kick off and try later with those.

The stadium was another with the stands close to the pitch, no sign of an athletics track. Our seats were behind the goal towards the corner flag in the very back row of the upper tier. A fantastic view, although I admit, very distant in terms of height. And hot too. Heat rises and all that, there was no breeze, and the toils of the day - even the stress of trying to buy some food at the stands inside the stadium, brought plenty of perspiration and I was glad I had taken along a hankie to mop my brow. We were at least in the shade thanks to the roof, but I imagine it was sweltering on the pitch, which became a factor as the game progressed. It was another quality stadium though, well up to standard with great sightlines and as a place to watch a football match, far better than many a World Cup venue I have seen games at in other countries.

There were a hell of a lot of empty seats in the stadium at kick off. Some, behind the goals where the tickets were all category 4 ones sold to the locals, were never filled, perhaps due to the 1pm kick off. People have to work after all. As for the others spaces, most did eventually see their users arrive. Adam did say there were a large number of people trying to sell spares from the direction the metro travellers were coming, so on that level we were fortunate to have come the other way, as the chances of shifting ours would have been far lesser. However, that did not explain the vast amount of empties as the game began. The sheer difficulty and time taken to reach the stadium doubtless did. I cannot get my head around why it has been plonked so far from the city where the people watching the games there will travel. Some people only got there at half time.

Italy started ok, and Mario Balotelli really should have scored when clean through with just the keeper to beat. It was the kind of miss we would crucify Olivier Giroud for missing if he did it in an Arsenal shirt. However, the longer the game went on, the more Costa Rica looked the better side, and to these eyes, should have had a penalty shortly before Brian Ruiz scored as half time neared.

Italy had to react after the interval, but frankly, they looked beaten by the heat and Costa Rica's determined pressing. I wonder if the match on Saturday in Manaus, followed by a melting pot of a 1pm kick off in the heat of Recife, did for them. Andrea Pirlo could play short passes, but seemed generally ineffective. His colleagues kept running into thickets of opposition players and England's hopes of Italy doing them a favour were forlorn. Ultimately, the defeat - by a single goal - was no different from Italy securing a late draw as far as their chances of progress were concerned. Either way, a draw with Uruguay will be enough to see them through. The final whistle came and England could no longer rely on a freak series of results to see them progress. For us, watching the last 16 game with the runners up of this group in the Maracana, we'd prefer to see Colombia against Uruguay or failing that Italy, so now are quite happy for Costa Rica to win the group.

Before the game, while I was trying to shift the spares, Adam had got the details of how we would get back to Recife via the metro, although to reach it, there was a shuttle bus service that took fans the fairly considerable distance to the station. If there were any thoughts about infrastructure in the siting of the new stadium, and maybe there were, they were not seen through, aside from the new roads that had been built to fill up almost 5,000 parking spaces that will exist there once FIFA moves out of town and the place becomes less like Fort Knox to access before security and ticket checks. So we crammed onto a bus to the metro station, then onto a packed train, although after a couple of stops some seats became free and we sat down. As luck would have it, sat next to me was a Chicago-based Mexican, who arranged to buy our spares from us. Job done.

We walked from the metro station at the other end back to the hotel, about an 800 yard walk. The heat in Recife meant people, as in Salvador, did not wear very much, and it was a pleasure just to see some very appealing eye candy just strolling along. As for the area, we had been told to take a certain route, and not cross the river to our hotel until we reached the particular bridge facing it, or would face trouble. The hotel was not in the nicest part of town, although it was in the centre, overlooking a river. We had to be careful. By the time we reached the hotel, France were leading 2-0 in their match against Switzerland in Salvador. I did not concentrate much on the game, although noted that at one stage, the Swiss centre back pairing were Senderos and Djourou, the once bright future of Arsenal's defence. That the Swiss lost 5-2 just about says it all. Giroud started, unlike the opening match, and played well from what I did register, scoring one and setting up another.

We decided, having travelled through the night to arrive in Recife, to eat fairly early and sleep, as we would be up at 5.30 the next morning to catch a flight to Manaus. We caught a cab to the area of town regarded as safest, where the majority of the hotels well situated, near the beach, to a classic Brazilian buffet restaurant. The traffic was once more a real crawl once we reached the area, I guess due to the rush hour (this was around about 7pm). Now dark, it had been interesting to view the area where we were staying from the cab. Plenty of homeless people, but also fairly lively. Probably not safe for a non-Brazilian though. I had been warned before I even arrived that if you are a foreigner out of context, you are like a Martian, and attract strange looks and unwanted hassle, even if you are fluent in Portuguese.

No such problems in the restaurant, which was full of visitors, and a plentiful supply of meat being offered at the table by wandering waiters with various options and a carving knife. We all pigged out - it was a set price however much you eat - and half watched Ecudaor beat Honduras on one of many screens the restaurant had set up. Taking a taxi back, we were driven along the seafront and could see the nicer side of the city. Lots of beachside snack bars to buy food and drink, and many people out enjoying the warm evening temperatures. I assume if we had stayed in Recife for more than a night, we would have booked a place here, but as it was, we didn't really have time to enjoy what was on offer, so it was no big thing. I would have enjoyed an hour's stroll along the promenade if we were staying close, but so it goes. The taxi driver was another character and we were treated to another duet between Adam and the man at the wheel when his CD played 'Down Under' by Men At Work from the 1980s.

The centre where we were staying offered the sight of some classic old, but crumbling buildings, and that sense of decay is a common theme in many of the places I have been. And in certain areas, it smells quite bad too, even where there are roadside shacks serving food and drink. One suspects the sanitisation aspect of the country is just one of many where funds need to be spent, but haven't been. They took the choice to build football stadiums, a discussion that has been held many times, with a generally unanimous view that really, the priorities are so obviously wrong. A few people have made a lot of money from the tournament being situated here, but the legacy will be a collection of fantastic football grounds that will very, very rarely justify their capacity. At the absolute minimum, the host nation really needs to win this tournament to give the people something they can hold onto as justification for its being here. But the party won't last so long that the folly of the thing won't be its abiding legacy.

Brazil is a great country with real possibility, but scratch the surface of the cliched images of the place - the Copacabana, Jogo Bonito, a nation that likes to party - and there is a huge job here to actually allow the place to progress. In that sense it is a bit like South Africa, although significantly, that nation brought into the exercise as a promotion of their country to the extent that crime on visitors more or less disappeared for a calendar month, which is no mean feat. Here, England fans are getting their earlobes bitten off and the police don't give a damn.