Brazilian defenders have become a lot more 'European' and better defensively over the past 15 or so years, and the approach of their NT more rounded (some would say defensive) since the days of Scolari and Dunga.
In defense of brazilian defenders, in the past 14 CL finals only once a there were no brazilian defenders starting (Pool-Spurs), all the other matchups had at least one, but often two brazilian defenders.
Brazilian defenders have become a lot more 'European' and better defensively over the past 15 or so years, and the approach of their NT more rounded (some would say defensive) since the days of Scolari and Dunga.
To add to the point even though Brazil started leaning more towards a compact defensive game initially in the early 90s and even though they produced world class defenders then like Cafú and Aldair, the sheer talent of the attacking players totally overshadowed the defenders.
The fact Brazil can’t produce high level attackers in abundance anymore changed the spotlight to other areas of the pitch but the good defenders were always there imo. You can go as far back as Nilton Santos and Carlos Alberto Torres to find world quality defensive players.