Full Time
Brazil beat Japan 2-1 to reach the Round of 16, but they made hard work of it. Kaishu Sano had Japan ahead just before the half-hour mark and the five-time champions looked rattled until Casemiro headed in an equaliser midway through the second half. It stayed level until the sixth minute of stoppage time, when Gabriel Martinelli popped up with the winner to send Brazil through and break Japanese hearts right at the death. Casemiro's leveller was the standout moment for Brazil, who needed a proper late rescue act to avoid a shock exit. Brazil move on in the knockout stage; Japan are out, but they gave the favourites a serious scare and leave with credit.
Pre-match Talking Points
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1This is a straight knockout. Win and you're in the last 16; lose and you're on a plane home. Brazil topped Group C with a 3-0 win over Scotland so they're in fine form, while Japan scraped through Group F on five points after a 1-1 draw with Sweden. Brazil are the heavy favourites — the Opta supercomputer gives them a 58% chance of winning in 90 minutes — but Japan have been here before and they know how to make a game ugly.
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2The two sides only have one World Cup meeting on the books: a 4-1 Brazil win back in 2006. Japan won the most recent match between them though — a 3-2 friendly in Tokyo last October, which Brazil will have filed firmly under 'that one we don't talk about.' Japan came from 2-0 down to win it, which is the kind of thing that lives rent-free in a team's head when they meet again in a knockout round.
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3Keep an eye on Vinicius Jr for Brazil. He is, by most accounts, the most uncomfortable player to defend against on the planet right now — quick, direct, and with a habit of drawing fouls in dangerous positions. For Japan's sake, the plan will be to keep him as far from their penalty area as possible. For everyone else's sake, it'll be more fun if that plan falls apart somewhere around the hour mark.
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4Japan's biggest problem going into this isn't Brazil — it's the absence of Takefusa Kubo, their best attacking player. He tore the meniscus in his left knee against the Netherlands in the opening game and hasn't played since. Head coach Hajime Moriyasu confirmed he won't feature today. It's a bit like going into a knife fight and finding out your sharpest knife is still in the drawer at home. Japan have coped without him so far, but Brazil is a different ask entirely.
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5Japan have never beaten Brazil at a World Cup — their only meeting ended 4-1 to Brazil. But Japan have now made the knockout stage at four of their last five World Cups, which is quietly remarkable for a country that wasn't even allowed to play in the thing until 1998. More relevantly: they have beaten both Germany and Spain in recent tournaments, so they clearly have a blueprint for knocking off footballing superpowers. Whether it works against a Carlo Ancelotti side with Neymar, Vinicius Jr and Raphinha in it is the question of the afternoon.
Team Talking Points
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1Brazil's World Cup ended in the Round of 16 — a genuine shock, beaten 2-1 by Norway in East Rutherford, New Jersey on July 5. Erling Haaland scored twice in the final ten minutes to turn the game, and Neymar's stoppage-time penalty was too little, too late.
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2The high point was Vinícius Júnior, Brazil's standout performer through the group stage, including a brace against Scotland — genuinely one of the form players of the tournament's opening rounds, and reason enough for optimism heading into the knockouts.
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3Losing to a team appearing at its first World Cup in 28 years is the kind of result that will sting for a while — Norway hadn't been to a tournament since before most of Brazil's squad were born, and this was their maiden quarterfinal. Worth naming plainly rather than dancing around it: this was a big upset.
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4Vinícius Júnior is the player to know — Real Madrid's forward and Brazil's most dangerous attacker throughout, even as the team fell short overall. Neymar, back from a long injury lay-off for his fourth World Cup, also deserves credit for the fight he showed in the final minutes, even in defeat.
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5Being knocked out by Norway rather than a traditional heavyweight makes this a harder loss to explain away, and Ancelotti's first World Cup in charge will face scrutiny because of it. But this is still a Brazil squad with Vinícius Júnior in his prime — the disappointment is real, and so is the talent to come back stronger.
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Top thing to say down the pub
Brazil go out to Norway — Norway, at their first World Cup in 28 years — with Haaland scoring twice in the last ten minutes. That's the kind of result that gets replayed for years.
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Avoid saying
Don't say 'Brazil always bounce back' like it's a given — this squad was among the favourites, lost to a team many hadn't taken seriously, and Brazilian fans will want that treated as the genuine gut-punch it was, not brushed off with a cliché.
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1Japan's World Cup ended in the Round of 32, beaten 2-1 by Brazil in about as cruel a way as football manages — Gabriel Martinelli scored the winner in the sixth minute of stoppage time, after Japan had led for most of the first half. Losing to a five-time champion by the smallest and latest possible margin is still losing, but it's the kind of exit that gets you more respect than most wins.
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2The high point was the goal that started it all: Kaishu Sano, a 25-year-old defensive midfielder who'd scored exactly one goal in the Bundesliga all season, drove at Brazil's midfield, brushed past Casemiro and beat Alisson from 20 yards for his first-ever international goal. For about an hour, Japan were genuinely threatening to knock Brazil out.
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3The turning point was Brazil's response — Casemiro equalising just after the hour, and then Martinelli's stoppage-time winner snatching it away in the last minute Japan had left to defend. There's no real misstep to point to; Japan simply ran out of time against a side with more firepower on the bench.
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4Sano was the name that came out of this tournament. A relative unknown outside Japan before the match, his goal against Brazil made him one of the breakout stories of the whole World Cup, on a team not exactly short of talented players.
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5Japan leave having taken a five-time World Cup winner to the very last kick of the game. That's the kind of near-miss that tends to get remembered a lot longer than a routine group-stage exit — and it's a solid marker for wherever this team goes next.
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Top thing to say down the pub
Japan led Brazil at the World Cup and lost it to a goal in the sixth minute of stoppage time — as gutting as football gets, and exactly the kind of near-miss that makes people take Japan seriously.
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Avoid saying
Don't say "Japan are just there to make up the numbers" — they were 96 minutes and one wonder goal away from knocking Brazil out of the World Cup; check the scoreline before assuming otherwise.