It was a jolly night down at The Bell, the bar inside the British embassy in Beijing, especially for the cheering Brazilians dressed in their side's colours and blowing horns.
Scotland was well supported, too, especially by the British press with James Pringle of The Times in a tartan tie yelling 'Viva Escocia' and vocal support from fellow Scot Colin Blane of the BBC. A Chinese television crew was even there.
The Brazilians had been invited round for a barbecue by the pool before everyone watched the match on a big screen.
The World Cup is fostering a spirit of internationalism among the foreign community with a round of World Cup-style soccer matches and a spate of similar invitations among the followers of rival teams.
The globalisation of sport lowers many boundaries - the Iranians will be inviting the Americans over to share a few beers to watch their respective sides play - but it is affecting China in a remarkable sense.
Even though no Chinese team is playing, the competition is gripping the country like nothing else has. Newspapers are putting out pages of extra supplements and everyone is talking about the matches and the players. Outside the nearest department store, a company promoting Braun electric razors has put up rows of life-sized cardboard cut-outs of Alan Shearer dressed in his England kit. Why Chinese need electric razors and why the English striker should help sell them is not easy to explain.
Yet it all seems part of the globalisation of the Chinese consciousness which has taken place at a pace hard to imagine 10 years ago. Right up to Tiananmen, what happened in China never seemed connected to what went on in the outside world. Now everyone has a TV and is sharing in the excitement, or at least hundreds of millions of households are.