The Superclasico between Brazil and Argentina gave rise to scenes of chaos on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, due to clashes between supporters in the stands of the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, during this qualifying match for the 2026 World Cup, forcing the referee to postpone the start of the match by half an hour. But if Leo Messi’s Argentines decided to return to the locker room, it was above all to calm things down because, in their eyes, the Brazilian police officers were also in the process of removing the pins.
Batons in hand, they allegedly dealt violent blows to Albiceleste fans in an area of the stand where there were families and their children. We even saw, an absolutely crazy scene, the Argentinian goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez rush to the police to stop them from beating up supporters. Held back by one of his teammates, he ended up heading to the locker room with his team.
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Messi denounces “the repression of Argentinians in Brazil”
“We did that because it was the way to calm things down a little. From below, there wasn’t much we could do. We could see how they were hitting the crowd. Something bad could have happened, Messi denounced after the meeting. Some players had family present in the stadium. We thought of them, who didn’t know what was happening. We were more concerned about that than about the match, which had become secondary at that point (…) When everything calmed down a little, we decided to come back. But first we went to see how our loved ones and everyone who was there were doing. »
Armed with large batons, the Brazilian police did not go out of their way to repress the violent supporters at the Maracana. – Celso Pupo/Fotoarena/Sipa USA/SI
On Instagram, La Pulga reiterated its message after the victory of its team (1-0) thanks to a goal from Nicolas Otamendi. “This team continues to make history. Great victory at the Maracana even if it will remain marked by the repression of the Argentines in Brazil, once again. This cannot be tolerated. This is madness and it needs to stop now! “. However, this dramatic situation could have been avoided. The association of Brazilian supporters’ groups (Anatorg) had in fact warned the day before of the risks of the absence of a sector reserved for Argentine supporters at the Maracana. Most of them were concentrated behind one of the goals, in the middle of the Brazilian public.
Brazil in the midst of crisis
As for the field, since the match still took place, the Argentinian world champions inflicted on Brazil their first home defeat in their history in qualifying for the World Cup. This victory allowed Argentina to remain at the top of the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup and to revive after its 2-0 defeat against Uruguay on Thursday, the first since the world title in Qatar.
Brazil, for its part, is sinking into crisis, with a third setback in a row, after losing to Uruguay (2-0) last month, then to Colombia five days earlier. Coach Fernando Diniz’s men fell to sixth place, the last synonym of direct qualification for the World Cup.
