Brazil suffered an unexpected 3-2 defeat to Japan in an entertaining friendly played at the National Stadium in Singapore. The match took a dramatic turn, with tensions reaching a peak in stoppage time when the “Samurai Blue” scored the winning goal and Brazil head coach Carlo Ancelotti was sent off with a red card.
Despite Vinicius Junior’s two goals, the five-time world champions were unable to hold on to their lead and ultimately left the pitch defeated. Sakamoto’s decisive goal in the closing minutes sparked a furious reaction from the Brazilian bench, after which the referee showed the Italian coach a red card.
After the match, 67-year-old Ancelotti explained why he had been sent off.
“He gave me a red card because he said I could not control the bench and that all the players had been on the pitch. That is the reason,” the coach revealed.
The Italian also expressed serious dissatisfaction with the referee’s performance. In his view, the official had failed to cope with the challenge of refereeing a match of this level.
“It is a shame about the result because we do not like to lose, but we have to look at what we did well... The result was obviously influenced by the referee’s approach, as he was not calling fouls. But that is not his fault; this was a high-level match and I think he did not have the experience to referee a game of this type,” Ancelotti also commented.