Kaishu Sano: 'Results are everything' as Japan's World Cup dream ends

Japan midfielder Kaishu Sano offered a blunt assessment after Gabriel Martinelli's stoppage-time winner ended the Samurai Blue's World Cup run. "I think results are everything, and I'm really disappointed because this team shouldn't have ended like this. But to be beaten like that at the very end makes me feel like we're not good enough, but what we've been doing isn't wrong.

I think we can be proud of what we've built up," the midfielder stated. Japan appeared on the verge of a historic result after Sano's first-half strike and looked comfortable for large periods, but Casemiro levelled after 56 minutes and Martinelli sealed the win in the sixth minute of added time.

For Brazil, the result was a narrow escape that officially sent them into the round of 16, where they will meet the winner of Ivory Coast and Norway; the goal also became the latest ever scored in normal time to win a World Cup knockout match since Opta's records began in 1966.

Japan

kaishu sano, japan, world cup, gabriel martinelli, samurai blue, casemiro, stoppage time, knockout match, ivory coast, norway