{"id":50128,"date":"2026-06-30T04:33:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T04:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/50128\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T04:33:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T04:33:19","slug":"world-cup-2026-brazil-down-japan-with-last-gasp-martinelli-goal-to-reach-last-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/50128\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: Brazil down Japan with last-gasp Martinelli goal to reach last 16"},"content":{"rendered":"

Super sub Gabriel Martinelli scored deep in injury time as Brazil<\/a> beat a stubborn Japan<\/a> 2-1 on Monday to roll into the World Cup<\/a> last 16.<\/p>\n

The Arsenal winger struck in the 95th minute in Houston to break Japanese hearts in the most dramatic fashion.<\/p>\n

The five-time champions will face either the Ivory Coast<\/a> or Norway<\/a> in New Jersey on Sunday after edging a captivating knockout encounter.<\/p>\n

Read moreWorld Cup 2026: All the fixtures<\/a><\/p>\n

Japan midfielder Kaishu Sano scored a classy solo goal after 29 minutes following a Brazil mistake to stun the huge numbers of fans decked out in yellow.<\/p>\n

Carlo Ancelotti’s men hit back 11 minutes after half-time with a header from veteran Casemiro as Brazil dominated the second period.<\/p>\n

Then up popped Martinelli right at the death to settle it and send the Brazil fans wild.<\/p>\n

\"Japan's<\/p>\n

Japan’s Kaishu Sano celebrates after scoring the opener. \u00a9 Annegret Hilse, Reuters <\/p>\n

History was against Japan: they had never won a knockout game at the World Cup, while Brazil were record five-time champions.<\/p>\n

But this is not a vintage Brazil side, even with Ancelotti at the helm, while Japan have been talked of as dark horses.<\/p>\n

With the Brazil fans’ drums providing a constant rhythmic backdrop, Ancelotti’s side were on top early on in front of a crowd of 68,777.<\/p>\n

Images of Neymar on the bench popped up on the big screens, the noise from the Brazil fans going up another notch.<\/p>\n

Defensive midfielder Sano was booked for crunching in on Vinicius Junior, then Brazilian attacker Matheus Cunha forced goalkeeper Zion Suzuki to turn the ball wide.<\/p>\n

Japan, who beat Brazil 3-2 in October in a home friendly for their first victory over the South Americans, then enjoyed a spell in the ascendancy.<\/p>\n

Just before the half-hour mark Hajime Moriyasu’s team took the lead, and it stemmed from an error by Danilo as he gave the ball away with a sloppy pass.<\/p>\n

Sano, one of four changes from Japan’s 1-1 draw with Sweden at the end of the group phase, picked the ball up in the centre circle and got away from the 34-year-old Casemiro \u2013 who was on a booking \u2013 with ease.<\/p>\n

Sano, who plays for Mainz in Germany, drove upfield before sweeping the ball past goalkeeper Alisson. It was his first goal for his country.<\/p>\n

\"Casemiro<\/p>\n

Casemiro scores the equaliser for Brazil. \u00a9 Pedro Nunes, Reuters <\/p>\n

Now the Brazil supporters were edgy, groaning when a move broke down or a pass went backwards.<\/p>\n

Brazil, whose last World Cup triumph was in 2002, looked unconvincing at the back and ineffective in attack.<\/p>\n

Ancelotti was forced into a change at the break, an emotional Lucas Paqueta limping off in distress with the attacking midfielder replaced by 19-year-old striker Endrick.<\/p>\n

Japan, who thrashed Tunisia and held the Netherlands and Sweden to reach the last 32, had Brazil where they wanted them.<\/p>\n

Brazil ramped up the pressure to start the second half and Japan defender Takehiro Tomiyasu twice kept the ball off the line, not that he knew much about it.<\/p>\n

Brazil were soon level, Arsenal defender Gabriel sending in an inviting cross for midfielder Casemiro to head in unmarked at the back post.<\/p>\n

The danger man Vinicius, well stifled up until then, turned the Japan defence inside out and stabbed the ball towards Suzuki, who directed it onto the post.<\/p>\n

It was all Brazil as they pushed for a late winner, with Vinicius \u2013 who scored four times in the group stage \u2013 increasingly in the thick of it.<\/p>\n

Then came Martinelli’s late intervention.<\/p>\n

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Super sub Gabriel Martinelli scored deep in injury time as Brazil beat a stubborn Japan 2-1 on Monday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5169,10067,8,33727,2536,5127,33874],"class_list":["post-50128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-brazil","tag-football","tag-japan","tag-neymar","tag-sport","tag-world-cup-2026","tag-world-cup-2026-live"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}