Daijiworld Media Network - Houston
Houston, Jun 30: Brazil football star Neymar had a playful response after Brazil defeated Japan 2-1 in the FIFA World Cup 2026 Round of 32 clash, taking a dig at German economist Joachim Klement whose prediction model had backed Japan to cause a major upset.
Soon after Brazil’s dramatic win, Neymar posted on X, “Sr. Joachim Klement... favor tentar na proxima copa” (“Mr. Joachim Klement... please try again at the next World Cup”). The post quickly went viral as fans celebrated Brazil’s qualification and the failure of one of the tournament’s most discussed predictions.
Klement, a mathematician and economist, is known for his World Cup prediction model, which he initially created to highlight the difficulty of forecasting football tournaments. However, the model gained attention after correctly predicting the previous three World Cup winners — Germany in 2014, France in 2018 and Argentina in 2022.
Ahead of the tournament, Klement had predicted that Japan could defeat Brazil if the two teams met in the knockout stage. Speaking to Fortune India, he said Brazil’s history made the prediction seem unlikely but believed Japan’s current squad had the ability to challenge the five-time champions.
“I don’t make predictions about individual matches in the group stage, but I do predict that we might get a match between Brazil and Japan in the last 32 and that Japan will win against Brazil. That sounds absurd to me at first, because Brazil is the world’s most successful team in history. Yet, the current generation of players is not at their best, while Japan has a very good team at the moment,” Klement had said.
The match initially appeared to be heading towards a possible upset. Brazil dominated possession but struggled defensively, allowing Japan to create several opportunities. Japan took advantage of Brazil’s mistakes and pushed the match towards a tense finish.
However, Brazil produced a late comeback moment when teenager Rayan won possession high on the pitch before Bruno Guimaraes set up Gabriel Martinelli. The Arsenal forward calmly finished the chance in stoppage time to seal a 2-1 victory for Brazil.
The result ended Japan’s impressive campaign and gave Neymar the final word, with his humorous message to Klement becoming one of the memorable social media moments of the World Cup.