Gabriel Martinelli scored in the 96th minute, and Brazil beat Japan 2-1 in a 2026 World Cup knockout match. The result sends Brazil into the round of 16 and keeps the World Cup run moving after the team had already been tested by an unconvincing 1-1 draw with Morocco on June 13.
Martinelli’s 96th-minute finish
Kaishu Sano put Japan ahead. Casemiro answered with the equalizer, and Martinelli settled it at the death for Brazil. The Arsenal forward delivered the decisive touch after Brazil had spent the match chasing the lead, not protecting it.
The final score was 2-1, and that shape matters for how the game unfolded: Japan forced Brazil to recover, and Brazil had to finish the job late rather than cruise through it. For a knockout match, that left no margin for a slow spell.
Brazil’s uneven path
This knockout win did not come out of nowhere, but it also did not follow a clean script. Brazil had already followed the draw with Morocco with 3-0 wins over Scotland and Haiti, a run that showed more threat than the opening result but not enough consistency to make the route simple.
Vinicius Junior and Matheus Cunha were part of those wins, giving Brazil forward options that can change a match quickly. Carlo Ancelotti has those players in form, and Brazil needed one of them — Martinelli — to decide this one when Japan held firm deep into the night.
New York awaits on July 5
Brazil will next face either the Ivory Coast or Norway in New York on July 5. That path keeps the team alive in the World Cup, with the round of 16 now the immediate target after a match that swung on one late finish.
The next game will ask the same question Brazil has carried through the tournament: whether the front line can turn pressure into a result quickly enough to avoid another long chase. Martinelli already answered it once.
