Japan stuns Brazil with late friendly winner

Vinicius Junior thought he had salvaged a draw after his brace cancelled out early goals from Takefusa Kubo and Keita Nakamura, but Sakamoto had the final say in a dramatic finale in Singapore.

Japan had Brazil on the back foot 15 minutes in, when Carlo Ancelotti's side lost possession on the halfway line, and Kubo shook off Jair Cunha to pick out the bottom-right corner.

Daizen Maeda had a one-on-one with Pedro Morisco moments later; his first attempt was smothered, but it bounced back to him, but his follow-up dink was narrowly wide.

But Japan doubled its lead in the 19th minute as Shuto Nakano pulled it back from the right byline to the unmarked Nakamura just inside the box, and he swept it into the back of the net.

Vinicius halved the deficit in the 33rd minute with a stunning strike; Estevao's saved shot was recycled, and the Real Madrid man arrowed a long-range effort into the top-left corner.

Zion Suzuki denied Andre on the stroke of half-time, with the goalkeeper also alert minutes into the second half to keep out Raphinha at his near post.

Brazil looked the bigger threat in the second half, and Vinicius made it count as he cut inside to convert from a short Bruno Guimaraes corner in the 75th minute.

Endrick then rattled the crossbar as Brazil pushed for a winner, but that would come courtesy of Sakamoto after Guimaraes lost possession in midfield. It was chaos in the Selecao’s box, but it bounced kindly to the substitute, who rifled past Morisco in the 91st minute.

But the drama was not yet over, as both Ancelotti and the already substituted Raphinha took issue with the goal, believing there was a foul in the build-up, and they received straight red cards for their protests.

Raphinha called for the referee to Japan to be punished after the defeat.

"First of all, I want to take this opportunity to apologise for the sending-off. It's difficult to control," he said.

"So many mistakes by the referee. I tried to talk to him, but I didn't feel he was open to talking. I believe that he made mistakes at many points in the game. It's unacceptable.

"There was a foul on the first goal; the boy handles the ball, which is understandable under the current rules. There was a penalty on me, and then their third goal. A very clear foul on Joao. He lets it go and, with the help of VAR [video assistant referee], awards the goal.

"In my opinion, we played a great game, much better in the second half than in the first, but when you're also playing against the referee, it's difficult. We can't let the refereeing go unpunished."

Ancelotti revealed the reason for his red card and explained why he took positives from the results.

"He [the referee] told me that I wasn't managing the bench and that's why he gave me the red card," the Brazil coach said.

"Regarding the result, I think we played well for 70 minutes, which is what we wanted to do. For the test we wanted to do, we were a little more exposed at the back because we wanted to press more up front.

"It's about developing those who are already playing. New players who have joined during this period. I said that I'm satisfied with the young players, and in March we'll finalise the group a bit more."