How Ancelotti’s changes sparked 45 minutes of peak Brazil
Nearly 70,000 people filled the stadium in Houston. Most were in euphoric delirium, some distraught. The moment demanded it. Brazil had scored the latest goal in regulation time of a World Cup knockout game, and the seemingly inevitable embarrassment of an early exit had been averted. Gabriel Martinelli, the substitute who had scored it, was mobbed. Players. Coaches. Support staff. Photographers. Amid all of them, Carlo Ancelotti. Stoic. Impassive. Calm. Around him, football dissolved into chaos. Carlo Ancelotti, as ever, refused to join it. Behind the stolid facade, though, lay relief. It had worked again, as it so often does. Substitutes Martinelli and Endrick both played decisive roles in the 95th-minute winner as Brazil overturned a first-half deficit to beat Japan 2-1. The second-half performance contrasted as sharply with the first as Ancelotti’s reaction did with those around him after the final whistle, and the difference came down to one thing: Ancelotti admitting a mistake, mid-tournament, in public, and reverting to default before it cost his team the World Cup. ALSO READ | Orlando Gill: …
