Martinelli's 95th-minute strike seals Brazil comeback as Ancelotti's cool head breaks Japan

Gabriel Martinelli angled a 95th-minute shot into the far corner to seal a dramatic Brazil comeback against Japan in Houston, with Carlo Ancelotti’s half-time changes rescuing the Seleção and keeping alive their pursuit of a sixth World Cup star. Bruno Guimarães had pierced the Japan defence moments earlier to set the stage for Martinelli’s decisive finish.

Japan had deserved their lead at the break, the more coherent and compelling side in the first half. The danger for Brazil was stark: a defeat would have represented their worst World Cup exit in decades, given they have reached the final eight in every tournament since 1990.

Ancelotti’s response was characteristically measured. He introduced Endrick for Lucas Paquetá at half-time, giving Brazil a sharper attacking edge, and later sent on Martinelli to replace Matheus Cunha. Both substitutions had a catalytic effect. The quarter of an hour after the restart bore comparison with England’s surge against Croatia, a managerial team talk translating directly into a sustained battering of the Japanese defence.

The Italian manager — dressed in a three-piece suit and looking, as one observer noted, more like a dapper antiques expert than a football coach — has made a habit of late drama in knockout football. His three Champions League titles with Real Madrid each featured crucial injury-time goals in either the semi-final or the final. The scenes in Houston felt familiar territory for the man widely regarded as having the lowest heart rate in football.

Japan’s own passiveness in the second half contributed to their downfall. The more organised team before the break, they retreated too deep after the interval, inviting pressure and appearing dragged back by an inferiority complex when they had the chance to eliminate the only five-time world champions.

The result extends a remarkable statistical trend: since losing to Argentina in 1990, Brazil have never been knocked out of a World Cup by a non-European nation. They have never fallen to a North American, African, or Asian side in the knockout rounds.

For Japan, the defeat continues a painful pattern. They have now lost knockout ties at five separate World Cups without ever progressing past that stage, their ambitions again ending at the moment the tournament truly begins.