So this was what Brazil hired Carlo Ancelotti to bring. The Italian won the Champions League three times with Real Madrid. Each brought a crucial injury-time goal in either the semi-final or the final; at times more than one.
And so, as Bruno Guimaraes pierced the Japan defence and Gabriel Martinelli angled a 95th-minute shot into the far corner of the net, the manager with the lowest heart rate in football had seen it all before.
Ancelotti can be the king of cool, the man who does not panic. His capacity for calm thinking in pressurised situations nevertheless contributed to a comeback that extends Brazil’s hope of gaining a sixth star on their shirts. Two of his changes had a catalytic effect: first introducing Endrick for Lucas Paqueta at half-time, giving Brazil a greater attacking threat, and then summoning Martinelli to replace Matheus Cunha.
At half-time, when Japan deservedly led in Houston, the danger was that this was remembered as Brazil’s worst World Cup. They have reached the last 16, or equivalent, in every tournament, the knockouts in all bar 1930 and 1966, the final eight on each occasion after 1990. Ancelotti can be the history-maker in cup competitions, but in the right way. He may be again.
His demeanour suggests he is so laidback that he is almost horizontal. Dressed in a three-piece suit, Ancelotti looked more like a dapper expert in antiques than a football coach. Yet part of his success lies in an ability to galvanise players decades his junior and with very different characters. Brazil emerged inspired after half-time. Their next quarter of an hour bore comparison with England’s 15-minute surge against Croatia. A managerial team talk led to a battering. And if Brazil then seemed to lose their momentum in the second half’s hydration break, they showed they have acquired the capacity for late drama that many another Ancelotti side has had.
They were aided, though, by Japan’s strange passiveness. The more coherent, more compelling team before the break, they retreated too soon, becoming passive, defending deep, inviting pressure, as though dragged back by an inferiority complex.
When they had a chance to make this a more global game, eliminating the only five-time winners, it instead led to a result in keeping with the World Cup. Since going out to Argentina in 1990, Brazil have never lost a knockout tie to any non-European country. They have never lost one to a North American, African or Asian side. They tend to beat football’s new world when it matters.
Japan, meanwhile, are stuck in their version of Groundhog Day. They have never won a knockout tie. They have lost them in five World Cups. Normally that means the last 16; in this format, it was the last 32. It was regression, in that respect, when the evidence of the first half against Brazil, plus their games against Sweden and the Netherlands is that, at the least, they are one of the top 16 teams and a side who could have been potential quarter-finalists.
A breakthrough result eluded them but they highlighted some Brazilian flaws, even if they were scarcely secrets. While Roberto Carlos watched on from a vantage point behind Gianni Infantino, Brazil showed they now lack high-class full-backs. Danilo gave the ball away in the build-up to Kaishu Sano’s opener. He was later booked for his inability to stop Daizen Maeda.
In midfield, Casemiro had a game of two halves. He hobbled off after 92 minutes when there was a case for substituting him after 45. What followed was redemptive. After showing his worst, he delivered his best.
Before the break, he was booked for clumsily upending Junya Ito, his propensity to go to ground when tackling again appearing a shortcoming. Then he was wading in treacle as Sano surged past him to score. He looked old and immobile: after being taken off at the break against Morocco, there were reasons to think history should repeat itself.
But Casemiro has character. And, for a defensive midfielder, he possesses an extraordinary ability to score goals. He is not merely a fine finisher. He has a striker’s instinct for an opening. He had a header brilliantly, and almost incomprehensibly, cleared off the line. He met Gabriel Magalhaes’ cross with an emphatic header to level.
He can be a big-game player, as Ancelotti knows. Casemiro was part of the team that won his fourth Champions League, in 2022. Ancelotti brought an old ally out of international exile, recalling Casemiro after a two-year absence, and made him integral again.
Compared to some of their predecessors, this Selecao side may not be blessed with options in the centre of the pitch. Ancelotti has paired Casemiro with Guimaraes. The older man scored the equaliser. The younger one set up the winner. As Ancelotti’s decisions paid off, Brazil advanced. And that, they will hope, is a sentiment they can repeat in the next weeks.
