Brazil score last-minute goal to break Japan hearts

So this was what Brazil hired Carlo Ancelotti to bring.

- RICHARD JOLLY SENIOR FOOTBALL REPORTER

The Italian won the Champions League three times with Real Madrid. Each brought a crucial injury-time goal in either the semifinal 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 halftime, giving Brazil a greater attacking threat, and then summoning Martinelli to replace Matheus Cunha.

At halftime, 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.