Two matches. Two nations left heartbroken. Two goals that arrived just when everyone had started to wonder if they were coming at all. The 2026 World Cup group stage signed off with a pair of stoppage-time moments that will be replayed for years — Gabriel Martinelli breaking Japanese hearts for Brazil, and Stephen Eustaquio writing Canadian football history on home soil.
Japan had done everything right. They had held Brazil — Brazil — and were ninety-plus minutes from a first-ever knockout-round appearance at a World Cup. Then Martinelli happened.
The Arsenal forward's winner came in the 95th minute (BBC Sport logs it as the 96th) and completed a comeback that Brazil had no right to pull off on the balance of the match. Japan had led, defended with discipline, and dared to believe. Martinelli ended all of it in a single touch.
For Brazil, it is the kind of goal that gets filed under 'of course' — the Seleção stumbling through the group stage before someone conjures something at the death. For Japan, it is the cruelest possible exit: a knockout-round place within reach, then gone in added time. They will feel this one for a while.
A few hundred miles away, the co-hosts were writing their own chapter. Canada had never reached the last 16 of a World Cup. On Saturday night, Stephen Eustaquio made sure they did.
His goal in the second minute of injury time — the only goal of the match, according to BBC Sport — sent Canada through in front of their own fans, in their own tournament, in a moment that the country's football community has been waiting for its entire existence. The scoreline was tight, the margin was thin, and none of that mattered.
For South Africa, it is a painful way to go. For Canada, it is the start of something. The last 16 of a home World Cup — there are worse places to find out what you are made of.
Two group-stage windows, two injury-time goals, two sets of fans who went from despair to delirium inside the same minute. The 2026 World Cup had already delivered its share of drama — but June 28 and 29 produced the kind of back-to-back theatre that reminds you why the group stage matters right until the final whistle.
Martinelli and Eustaquio will not remember the exact minute. They will remember the feeling. So will everyone watching.
Two matches. Two nations left heartbroken. Two goals that arrived just when everyone had started to wonder if they were coming at all. The 2026 World Cup group stage signed off with a pair of stoppage-time moments that…
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“Stays on World Cup — different angle, same beat.”
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SELEÇÕESGabriel Martinelli has done it on the biggest stage — the Arsenal winger scoring the goal that sent Brazil into the 2026 World Cup Round of 16 and ended Japan's tournament on June 29. Five-time world
“Stays on World Cup — different angle, same beat.”
SELEÇÕESGabriel Martinelli has done it on the biggest stage — the Arsenal winger scoring the goal that sent Brazil into the 2026 World Cup Round of 16 and ended Japan's tournament on June 29. Five-time world
