Argentina defeated Brazil 1-0 on Tuesday in an ailing-tempered 2026 World Cup qualifying conflict marred by pre-match crowd hassle that pressured kick-off to be delayed.
A 63rd-minute header from veteran defender Nicolas Otamendi secured victory for Argentina because the world champions bounced again from final week’s defeat to Uruguay to beat their bitter South American rivals.
The win at Rio’s iconic Maracana Stadium leaves Argentina on prime of the South American qualifying standings with 15 factors from six video games.
Brazil’s third defeat of qualifying, in the meantime, leaves the 5-time world champions in sixth place with seven factors from six video games.
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“This group continues to achieve historic things,” Argentina captain Lionel Messi mentioned afterwards. “Maybe today wasn’t the most important thing, but it was a nice win.”
Tempers had flared within the stands on the Maracana moments earlier than kick-off, with Brazilian police seen utilizing batons to drive again a block of Argentine followers at one finish of the bottom.
Several Argentina gamers went in the direction of the disturbances in an obvious try and plead for calm, with goalkeeper Emi Martinez trying to leap into the seating space at one stage to confront a baton-wielding Brazilian police officer.
Argentina’s gamers led by Messi then returned to their dressing room because the clashes continued, with Messi showing to say: “We’re not playing, we’re leaving.”
Messi later defined he had taken his crew-mates off the sector within the hope of cooling the environment.
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“We went to the locker room because it was a way to calm everything down a little,” Messi mentioned. “We went to see how our families and people close to us were doing. And then we came back.”
The 2022 World Cup winners re-emerged onto the sector shortly earlier than 10pm native time and the match kicked off shortly afterwards, roughly half-hour later than the scheduled begin time.
The febrile pre-match environment spilled onto the sector when play lastly acquired below approach, with Brazil’s Arsenal striker Gabriel Jesus being given a yellow card after simply 5 minutes after clashing with Argentina’s Rodrigo De Paul.
– Tense environment –
The tense nature of the competition continued all through a poor first half, with neither aspect creating a lot in the way in which of goalscoring alternatives in a recreation suffering from niggly fouls.
Brazil winger Raphinha was booked within the 14th minute for flinging an arm into the face of De Paul, and was fortunate to not obtain a second yellow 5 minutes later after catching Alexis MacAllister with a wild studs-up problem.
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Brazil in the meantime didn’t register a single shot — both on or off track — till a thirty eighth minute free-kick from Raphinha that deflected broad for a nook.
The solely shot on purpose from both aspect in your entire first half got here on 44 minutes, when Brazil’s Gabriel Martinelli lashed a muffed clearance from Argentina goalkeeper Martinez again in the direction of purpose.
Martinelli’s shot was heading for the web however Argentina breathed a sigh of aid after defender Cristian Romero blocked the trouble on the road.
Brazil began the second half extra positively, with Raphinha having a shot blocked on the close to submit by Martinez after 54 minutes.
Martinez then rescued Argentina once more, parrying Martinelli’s purpose-sure shot after an excellent run by Gabriel.
But Brazil have been rocked after Argentina took the lead on 63 minutes with their first try heading in the right direction of the match.
Giovani Lo Celso swung in an inviting nook from the left and the 35-12 months-previous Otamendi soared above Brazil midfielder Andre to go dwelling for 1-0.
A depressing night time for Brazil acquired worse within the 82nd minute when substitute Joelinton — who had solely been on the sector for 12 minutes — was despatched off for an off-the-ball conflict with De Paul.
In different South American qualifiers on Tuesday, Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez scored twice as Uruguay simply beat Bolivia 3-0 to stay in second place within the standings, two factors behind Argentina.
Colombia stored up their qualification push with a 1-0 win over Paraguay in Asuncion, whereas Chile’s issues mounted with a 1-0 defeat in Quito in opposition to Ecuador.
Colombia, who didn’t qualify for the 2022 World Cup, are third within the desk with 12 factors. Chile nonetheless are languishing in eighth spot with simply 5 factors. In the day’s different recreation, Peru drew 1-1 with Venezuela in Lima.
The prime six groups of the spherical-robin dwelling-and-away qualifying match will earn berths on the 48-crew 2026 World Cup going down within the United States, Canada and Mexico, whereas the seventh-positioned crew goes right into a play-off.
