Seleção against Argentina: Brazil no longer even wins with sticks – Sport

The Seleção can no longer sink much lower, there is agreement in Brazil on that point. The only question being discussed is where the embarrassment is greater: on the pitch or in the organization?

On the green, the Canary Yellows lost for the third time in a row on Tuesday night. In qualifying for the 2026 World Cup, after the defeats in Uruguay (0:2) and Colombia (1:2), this time things went wrong against the current title holders and arch-enemy Argentina . The 0-1 (0-0) against Lionel Messi and his friends at the Estádio Maracanã is Brazil’s first ever home defeat in the history of World Cup qualification. In South America’s group of ten, the record world champion has fallen back to sixth place, the last direct place for participation in the finals. Awkward.

Many of the 68,000 fans left the arena before the final whistle, and some of those who remained accompanied the visitors’ final passes with mocking, repeated shouts of “Olé”. Apart from Nicolás Otamendi’s header from a corner (63′), the Argentines hardly had a chance. Even Messi was taken out of the game by the well-defending Brazilians, but the captain was also hampered by an adductor injury, which meant he was replaced by Ángel Di María (78′).

The young hosts showed better football even without the injured Neymar and Vinícius Junior, but failed due to poor finishing and also because the Chilean referee only punished Brazilian fouls. He showed three yellow cards and one red card (Joelinton, 81st). Despite comparable severity, none of the Argentinians were punished.

Perhaps the referee thought that the guests had already been treated badly enough. Before kick-off there were nasty riots in the Argentinian fan block, the result of a fatal mistake by the Brazilian football association CBF, which later tried to blame the police. She had classified the game as “low risk”. This was surprising simply because there had been riots at the Brazilian-Argentine final of the Copa Libertadores between Fluminense and Boca Juniors in Rio a few weeks ago.

Seat shells fly, fights begin, the military police arrive

The feared hooligans from Buenos Aires and the surrounding area, known as “Barra Bravas”, were assigned the ranks at the bottom behind the goal in the south – and not a block high up and isolated under the stadium roof. Around 1,000 belligerent Argentines formed a light blue spot in the middle of a yellow sea of ​​fanatical Seleção fans. Even before kick-off, there was provocation from both sides, and soon torn-out seat shells were flying back and forth. As whistles accompanied the Argentine national anthem, fights began. Brazil’s military police rushed over and brutally attacked the Argentinians with batons, beating five people bloodily.

Lionel Messi, still with the side selection pennant in his hand, rallied his colleagues to run into the corner and protect his compatriots, including family members of the professionals. Goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez even got into a fight with one of the police officers.

Argentina’s footballers then returned to the dressing room. “We can’t play like that,” said Messi. The game finally started at 9:57 p.m., almost half an hour later than planned, with a lot of aggression on both sides. Football wasn’t actually played until the second half.

“It’s ugly that something like this happens,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni later commented, “it’s sad to show yourself to the world like that.” Instead of advertising for South American football, its nastiest face was presented at the end of the year. On the other hand, the incidents also gave the Argentinians great pride. “They won’t even win against us if they pull out the sticks,” said the Argentinian newspaper Olé happily.

“This selection needs a coach in full possession of his powers. I have to think,” said Scaloni

Scaloni praised his team’s strength of character, which remains on course for victory even after the World Cup. Apart from last week’s slip-up against the strong Uruguayans of Argentine coach Marcelo Bielsa at the La Bombonera stadium (0-2), the Argentines have won all their games and are leading South America’s World Cup qualifying group. The victory was celebrated like a title win, the cheers spread from the locker room into the press area. It was all the more surprising that Scaloni questioned his own continuation at the end of the press conference.

It was “difficult,” said the 45-year-old, who took over the Albiceleste after the 2018 World Cup and won the Copa América with them in 2021 – also with a 1-0 win in the Maracana – against Brazil, before winning the World Cup title in 2022 followed in Qatar. “This selection needs a coach in full possession of his powers. I have to step on the ball and think a lot,” said Scaloni. When a journalist asked whether this was a resignation, Scaloni said “gracias” (thank you) and quickly left the room.

Fernando Diniz then came onto the stage, Brazil’s coach called the result “unfair”. He had won the Copa Libertadores with his club team Fluminense two weeks earlier, and as interim coach of the national team he was responsible for one of the worst series in history. But here too the association is to blame, because almost a year after coach Tite’s resignation, the successor has still not been decided.

The relatively inexperienced but nationally respected Diniz is not strengthened, but is only tolerated as a placeholder. The 49-year-old is expected to be on the sidelines for the next test matches in March in London against England and Madrid against Spain, then he should make way for Carlo Ancelotti for the South American Championship in the USA, which takes place at the same time as the European Championship. The Brazilian association has been promising the Italian’s arrival from Real Madrid for months, but nothing has been signed yet. A basket from Ancelotti would be the next embarrassment.