ARGENTINA 4-1 BRAZIL: The World Cup holders qualified for the 2026 tournament by hammering their bitter rivals, with Premier League stars past and present on the scoresheet
Argentina stars admitted that comments from Brazil’s Raphinha motivated them to pull off a dominant 4-1 win over their South American rivals in World Cup qualifying.
Goals from Julian Alvarez, Enzo Fernandez, Alexis Mac Allister and Giuliano Simeone did the damage, as Argentina celebrated becoming the first South American nation to book their ticket to the 2026 World Cup. Uruguay’s draw with Bolivia earlier on Tuesday meant that the holders had already qualified for next year’s tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico, but there was no letup in Buenos Aires.
Former Manchester City striker Alvarez got Argentina up and running after just four minutes before Chelsea midfielder Fernandez doubled their lead.
Wolves forward Matheus Cunha pulled a goal back in the 26th minute, pouncing on a mistake by Tottenham centre-back Cristian Romero. Argentina restored their two-goal lead before half-time through Mac Allister, as the Liverpool midfielder combined with Fernandez.
Substitute Simeone put the game to bed in the 71st minute, with Brazil unable to come back. Raphinha hit the crossbar with a late free-kick but there was no silver liver lining for the Barcelona winger, who was made to eat his words.
Following an ill-tempered affair between the South American rivals in 2023, which saw Argentina end Brazil’s long-standing unbeaten home record, Raphinha vowed in the build-up to Tuesday’s clash that he and his team-mates would ‘beat them up’.
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Speaking to Brazilian legend Romario, the ex-Leeds star declared: “We are going to beat them up on and off the pitch if necessary. I am going to score. They can s*** themselves!” Raphinha continued: “In Argentina, you have to hit them, it hurts! They’re b*******.”
Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni attempted to ease tensions in response to Raphinha’s comments, describing the teams as ‘warriors on the pitch, good friends off of it’. Towards the end of the game, Argentina’s fans mockingly chanted ‘sub on Raphinha’.
Even without the injured Lionel Messi and Lautaro Martinez, Scaloni’s side were so dominant that they hardly needed to be warriors. “This is a team victory. We played as a team, and that’s why we were able to minimize Brazil,” the World Cup-winning boss said post-match.
“I really don’t know if it’s our greatest victory, we’ve played great games and doing great things in them. A team has to know what to do in different situations, and tonight, the boys did great.”
Asked once again about Raphinha’s comments after the game, Scaloni cordially replied: “I excuse Raphinha because I know he didn’t do it on purpose. He’s defending his country and I’m sure he didn’t want to offend anyone. Brazil will always be Brazil, it’s a difficult time for them but they will return.”
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Alvarez was also asked if Raphinha had given Argentina extra motivation. “Obviously that manner of speaking adds some spice to a match like this,” the Atletico Madrid star replied. “Thanks to our humility and work we played a great match. We danced around them.”
Midfielder Leandro Paredes added: “You shouldn’t talk about it beforehand, you shouldn’t say these kinds of things when you can’t back it up on the pitch. When he said that, we sent it to the WhatsApp group and we discussed it. Whenever this kind of thing happens, we stand up for ourselves on the pitch.”
Brazil will look to bounce back in a huge clash with surprise package Ecuador, who are second in the qualifying table, in June. They’ll then play Paraguay, another team currently in the automatic qualification spots, three days later.
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