Brazil’s progress into the last-16 of the World Cup was eventually secured by a stoppage-time winner from Gabriel Martinelli, but the decisive moment was less about the individual brilliance than a gradual dismantling of one of the most disciplined units of this World Cup. The 2-1 comeback was built on Carlo Ancelotti recognising that Japan were defending exactly the spaces Brazil were trying to attack before forcing the game into different directions.
It explains why for the entirety of the first half Japan looked so comfortable. Their compact defence block frustrated Brazil, Vinicius Junior being reduced to a peripheral figure and the front third looking short of ideas. They dominated possession, passed around the ball and tried to stretch Japan across the width of the pitch but still couldn’t penetrate. Without the ball, Japan dropped into a narrow 5-4-1, compressed the space between defence and midfield and consistently marked Junior with two defenders he just couldn’t shake off.
It was a plan that was working perfectly for Japan, barring Matheus Cunha’s early low effort that was comfortably pushed away by goalkeeper Zion Suzuki. As Brazil’s attacks became more predictable, Japan began to threaten to attack on the counter. Till Kaishu Sano actually made one count. Seizing on a loose pass from Danilo and powering past a hesitant, already booked Casemiro, Sano hared down the field before firing low beyond Alisson. It was an excellent finish, but also a warning that Brazil’s positional structure was at the risk of imploding whenever they lost possession.
This is where Ancelotti’s tactical nous came into play. By introducing Endrick, replacing the injured Paqueta at the start of the second half, Brazil switched to a clearer and more functional 4-2-3-1. “What was important was to keep our structure. We know we’re going down the right path and we have to continue on this path,” Ancelotti said later.
With Endrick, Brazil could afford to deliver vertical recce missions while Bruno Guimaraes could stay behind to operate between Japan’s defence and midfield. Along with that they widened their attacks and looked to deliver the ball into the penalty area much earlier as part of a bigger, chaotic gameplan. That unlocked Japan’s tight defence, as they had to track runners, attacking aerial deliveries while negating opportunities inside the six-yard box.
“At first we were trying to achieve superiority in midfield, to infiltrate,” Ancelotti said. “It didn’t work because their marking was really tight. They were really closed off. We changed at the interval to try to penetrate their area a little more. We crossed some balls and got forward better, so this is an evolution. We struggled to find space at first but we were able to solve this problem very well.”
Brazil’s first major opportunity after restart came soon. A cross created confusion inside the penalty area as Casemiro’s header struck Takehiro Tomiyasu and Hiroki Ito in what resulted in a miraculous goal-line save. But that only motivated Brazil to double their attacks. The equaliser wasn’t long. Gabriel Magalhaes delivered a ball towards the far post, Casemiro once again attacking a free space to head the ball across Suzuki’s outstretched hands.
With that goal, Brazil had finally identified an area where Japan’s numerical superiority mattered less than physicality and delivery. That spurred Brazil to attack with greater urgency, slowly bringing Vini Junior into the picture with quick dashes to further unsettle the retreating Japan defences. His diving run and chipped effort that Suzuki tipped onto the post was one of the clearest opportunities for Brazil, created not because Japan had suddenly defended poorly but because Brazil had finally explored the right spaces.
With every passing minute, Japan seemed to defend more inside their own third, while the distances required to launch counterattacks became increasingly difficult to cover. This is where Brazil had won the psychological edge. The winning goal arrived in stoppage time, though it felt imminent for a long time.
Ao Tanaka initially won possession, only for Japan to lose it immediately under pressure. Rayan recovered the loose ball before quickly finding Guimaraes, whose first-time pass released Martinelli. But Japan’s defensive shape hadn’t yet recovered. For perhaps the first time in the game, Brazil attacked an unbalanced defensive line rather than a perfectly organised block. Martinelli’s powerful finish, helped by the far post despite Suzuki getting a hand to it, finally broke Japan’s resistance.
Against one of the World Cup’s best-drilled defensive teams, Brazil didn’t simply increase the pressure after the break, they changed the questions they were asking of Japan’s defence. Through to the last-16, seeking the verve to win a sixth World Cup, this was exactly the kind of examination Brazil needed to endure. Like Ancelotti said: “Suffering is part of the game, as is relief.”
