Analysis:Brazil survive like Real Madrid in Ancelotti thriller

June 29 : Carlo Ancelotti has spent weeks warning that grit and resilience would decide a long, complicated World Cup. On this evidence, Brazil have been listening — even if, for much of the match against Japan, they seemed determined to test the theory to destruction.

One could argue this was not simply a 2-1 Brazil victory. It seemed a familiar Ancelotti production: control, wobble, self-inflicted trouble and then, when logic was packing its bags for extra time, a late act of defiance that belonged as much to the heart as to the tactics board.

Ancelotti knows plenty about long, complicated tournaments from his years at Real Madrid. His best Real sides were not always flawless, but they carried something more dangerous than perfection: the certainty that the story was never over.

The similarities were hard to miss.

In 2022, Real roared back past Paris St Germain, Chelsea and Manchester City on their way to winning the Champions League, surviving situations that looked terminal until they suddenly were not.

It was not always tidy, far from that. But it was brutally effective, powered by competitive nerve, clarity in chaos and a refusal to accept the obvious conclusion. Even when it did not make sense.

Brazil, for so long, had that same World Cup aura. Every four years, the tournament seemed to become their property, their stage, their natural habitat. Like Real Madrid in the Champions League, they did not merely play in it. They occupied it. And there was always that feeling among rivals that you needed to beat them to belong.

Against Japan, this team in yellow offered both sides of the Ancelotti bargain.

Brazil dominated from the start and were the better team, but they were also exposed by mistakes that felt predictable,