Not that it was necessary, but the rivalry between Brazil and Argentina entered a new phase from the 10th of July this year. At least for the Argentines, the victory over the Brazilians in the Copa América final, at Maracanã, was a catharsis.
It was the country’s first major title in 28 years. Lionel Messi had never won a trophy for the senior team.
However, when the two teams face off this Tuesday (16), at the San Juan Bicentenary stadium, Brazil will enter the field already classified for the World Cup in Qatar, in 2022. The place was won with the 1-0 victory over Colombia, at Neo Química Arena, last Thursday (11).
“It’s Brazil x Argentina. It has all the ingredients of a world classic, two teams with gigantic players, incredible quality and history. A nice game to play and watch. Our goal is to go there, play a great game, win three important points in the Qualifiers and continue to evolve as a team”, aims right back Danilo.
Tite’s team tries to maintain their unbeaten record in the South American Qualifiers. In the best campaign in the history of qualifying in the current format, Brazil has 11 wins and a draw. The all-against-all round-trip formula was adopted from the 1998 World Cup.
Argentina can also qualify in this round. For that, they need to win and that in the games in Chile, Colombia and Uruguay, two of these three teams do not win – Chileans, Colombians and Uruguayans have 16 points.
Uruguay will go to the altitude of La Paz to face Bolivia. Colombia welcomes Paraguay. Chile will play host, in Santiago, against Ecuador. All these clashes also take place this Tuesday.
Brazil leads the qualifiers with 34 points. Argentina are second at 28. But the two teams have a game in hand over the other eight because of the unfinished showdown on September 5th.
The derby was interrupted 6 minutes into the first half by ANVISA inspectors, who entered the Neo Química Arena’s lawn. Four Argentine players did not comply with mandatory quarantine because of restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The case is with FIFA, which has not yet decided whether either team will be declared the winner or if the match will happen again.
According to the classification system in South America, the first four placed advance to the World Cup. The fifth goes to a play-off against a continent team yet to be determined.
In training this Sunday (14), Tite tested changes in the lineup. Casemiro is suspended and should be replaced by Fabinho. The coach is considering the possibility of putting Matheus Cunha in the place of Gabriel Jesus and Eder Militão in the place of Thiago Silva.
Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni should have Lionel Messi from the start. The striker entered during the second half in the victory by 1-0 over Uruguay, last Friday (12).
Winning against Brazil can give a new impetus to a team that feels comfortable with their own performance after a long time – possibly since the 2014 World Cup, when they reached the final.
The team was dubbed by the local press as “Scaloneta”, a compliment to the coach who had no previous experience in the position and was viewed with suspicion at the beginning of his work, after the poor campaign at the 2018 World Cup. Scaloni was assistant to Jorge Sampaoli, fired after irregular campaign at the World Cup.
After the unfinished game against Brazil, Argentina won the five matches they played in the qualifiers and without conceding a goal. Tite’s team won four and drew one.
San Juan police estimated that 6,000 people had lined up since Saturday night to buy tickets, which went on sale at midnight this Monday (15). Globo and SportTV broadcast the match.
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