And here’s the match report from Tuesday night’s game:
Full-time: Brazil reach the final, Argentina crash out
The camera goes to Messi, and his bottom lip is poking out, though he is trying not to give too much away. This was not a playing embarrassment like those at previous Copas and World Cups but Argentina have flopped again. His chances of ever winning an international trophy are dwindling to a maximum of two, three more attempts, and he looked a little jaded in Belo. It may now be time to step aside for the new guard.
Brazil, with better finishing, organisation, and belief in themselves, are in the final and will play the winner of Peru and Chile. They must fancy themselves, though a mounting injury list may be problematic. That was the pitched battle we wanted and expected, a classic of the genre.
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90+4 min: Brazil fans celebrate and taunt their most hated opposition as the clock ticks on. It has been a great night for them.
90+3 min: Brazil take an age over a corner but then Coutinho, chasing the goal his performance deserves, goes looking for a goal. The ball is eventually cleared.
90+2 min: Argentina have not played badly, really, especially the younger guard, who have been let down - a little by the elder statesmen - and that includes Messi, who has only occasionally flashed.
90 min: Four minutes added on. Surely not for Argentina?
89 min: Argentina’s tactical shift has left them shapeless. They don’t even have a Mick Harford or Niall Quinn to launch the ball at. Too many ball players. Di Maria loses it and the brilliant Dani Alves runs half the length of the field then gratefully buys a foul.
88 min: Brazil being roared on as they pass the ball the around. This looks like the end for Argentina. And Messi’s drought will continue. Probably forever, too.
87 min: Argentina’s final change saw Paulo Dybala come on for Tagliafico. That looks too little and far too late.
85 min: Brazil having to defend like demons. But they get respite when Otamendi hits the floor. He was poleaxed by Arthur in the box. That looks like a case for VAR. But nothing given. If that was not a foul then...VAR is far less liberal at the Women’s World Cup.
82 min: A Messi maraud is stopped in its tracks by a combination of Alisson and his defenders. Aguero was waiting but couldn’t get on the end of the ball. Willian is the latest Brazilian to go down, though he manages to haul himself back on the field to stop the action taking place.
80 min: Jesus off, for Alan, and the City player leaves as the man of the match, having set up the second and scored the first, his first of the tournament. He has overshadowed Aguero tonight. Pep Guardiola take note.
79 min: The Brazilian wall of defending holds firm again from a corner and Di Maria wildly whacks the ball into the stand. Gabriel Jesus looks like he has a problem, perhaps muscular, perhaps as a result of the buffeting he has taken.
78 min: Argentina free-kick, and Messi will take it. It’s from the same position as before but he can’t even beat the wall.
74 min: That sinking feeling for Argentina, and tempers are flaring. Lionel Scaloni, the Argentina coach was booked for getting involved in a row.
Goal! Brazil 2-0 Argentina (Firmino, 71)
It came on the counter. Gabriel Jesus broke clear of Otamendi’s clutches, and the ball is slipped to the Liverpool forward, whose finish is hugely calm. Armani can do nothing, and he had been left exposed by his defenders.
70 min: Brazil waste a corner when Coutinho hits the ball too obtuse an angle for his attackers to read. His final ball has not been great on a night he has played well.
68 min: It was Lo Celso who scored Argentina’s second against Venezuela, having come on as sub. What can he conjure tonight?
67 min: Argentina change: Lo Celso comes on for De Paul.
66 min: Messi wins a free-kick in ominous territory by skipping past Dani Alves. Argentina want a penalty but that won’t be happening. It was outside the box. We have seen these whipped in as a matter of course, but Alisson reads it well and catches the ball. It was not given the usual exocet speed but still, fine keeping.
64 min: Another Argentina chance? No, De Paul’s chip is just too far for Di Maria. That sub is made: Miranda on for Marquinhos.
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62 min: Marquinhos has a knock and looks like he cannot continue for Brazil, and that will be a severe blow. He has been their prime defender. Joao Miranda will come on, the veteran 34-year-old. Marquinhos looks to have done his hamstring.
61 min: Argentina knock on the door, but Brazil look dangerous as well. This game has lived up to its billing. And more. Real tension and passion.
59 min: Argentina sub: on comes Angel di Maria for Marcos Acuna.
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58 min: Messi hits a post! Martinez shoots and the ball spills to Messi who rattles the ball off the woodwork. Aguero is unable to follow the ball in. Martinez, soon after that, gets booked for a tactical foul on Alex Sandro. This is reaching boiling point.
57 min: Oh wow! Wizardry from Dani Alves, and then Gabriel Jesus, but the ball came to Coutinho who saw glory and smashed the ball over. Juan Foyth is booked meanwhile for a hack at Alves during that move.
56 min: Aguero sets off on a long run but finds a blind alley. Messi looked irked by that, as he was asking for the ball.
54 min: Brazil can’t be looking to hang on to this lead, can they? Extra-time may beckon if they do. Willian was brought on to add speed on the break and muscle on the right flank.
52 min: Messi is fouled as he comes away from a melee in midfield. Again, he had dropped deep. Then, he and Aguero link up to set up De Paul, bursting on, to fire in a shot. The shoot was poor. Argentina have had seven shots to Brazil’s two.
50 min: Plenty of booing as Argentina play the ball around patiently until Acuna makes a mess of his pass. Then, Martinez gets the ball in space and tests Alisson with a shot that is caught. Still, that was a warning sign.
49 min: Tagliafico goes forward this time and his cross is dangerous and aimed at Sergio Aguero, but headed away by Thiago Silva.
47 min: Tagliafico, chasing back, rather carelessly concedes a corner. The kick is aimed at Thiago Silva but Armani claims it smart-casually.
Willian is coming on for Brazil as a half-time sub, and it looks like Everton has come off. There are boos for that from the crowd in Belo.
Ok, here we go. Is this the last 45 minutes of Lionel Messi’s international career? Until, that is, he comes out of retirement for next year’s Copa and the World Cup in 2022.
Aaron from Ireland thinks of what might have been, though takes a dollop of fantasy. “Greetings John. It’s sad that Lionel’s Messi’s incredible career will, in part, be defined by Argentina’s comical failure to deliver a single international title aside from that Olympic gold in 2008. Imagine a parallel universe where Messi declared for Spain and won multiple World Cups and European Championships side-by-side with Xavi and Iniesta.”
Half-time: Brazil 1-0 Argentina
That was a breathless half, and it ends with Lionel Messi asking questions of the officials. Brazil were the better team, but only just. Gabriel Jesus’ goal was the creation of the ageless Dani Alves but Sergio Aguero hit the bar with a header from a chipped Messi free-kick.
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45+1 min: Whistles as Argentina mount their last attacks of the half. Brazil holding firm so far. Still yet to concede a goal in the tournament.
45 min: There will be two minutes added on.
44 min: Coutinho carries the ball 40 yards, plays in Alves, who tries another of those crosses. Again, Argentina deal well with that. Brazil are back on the attack now.
43 min: Alves swings in a great cross but Firmino cannot climb above Pezzella, who stands his ground well, stopping the Liverpool man getting his head on the ball.
42 min: Jesus wins respite by winning a free-kick, as does Coutinho straight after. Everton goes on the charge and the crowd get excited. It takes Foyth’s hack behind to cool that excitement.
40 min: Some Messi wizardry, as he holds three, four defenders but Brazil are back in enough numbers to get the ball away. Acuna, meanwhile, is booked for a clash with Alves, who also got a yellow. They were contesting a throw-in. Oh, it’s heated.
38 min: First shot by Messi. It goes over; he now looks up for this. He even put in tackle just now, on a rather surprised Alex Sandro.
36 min: Marquinhos has to stop an Aguero shot as Messi releases his old pal. Signs of the old telepathy coming back? Did they ever have much telepathy? Maybe at the 2008 Olympics.
35 min: Alves is OK to continue too, and that’s good for this game as he has been an absolute wizard. His contribution to the goal was a rolling back of the years to his Barca peak.
34 min: Now Dani Alves is hurt and it looks painful. Ginger would be the description of his current gait.
32 min: Alisson is OK to continue, but Brazil suddenly don’t look quite so solid as they did.
30 min: Close for Argentina. Only a desperate scramble clears Brazil’s lines. Messi’s free-kick finds the head of Aguero and he hits the crossbar! Alisson, rather conveniently, goes down with a knock and there’s a break in play.
29 min: Messi asks for a yellow card for foul on him by Casemiro. Naughty boy. He gets away with it, of course.
27 min: Argentina are a little slow in their build-up before Thiago Silva, the Glasto fave, stops Martinez’s progress by coming across to pull off an expert block.
25 min: Messi is now dropping deep. Already. A foul by Casemiro on Martinez gives Argentina some territory, and they take their time over their kick. Messi takes, and it’s no good. Alisson claims with ease and launches Everton off down the field. Brazil’s amusement arcade - their new Denilson? - gets stuck in traffic.
23 min: Dani Alves, currently clubless, has been the best player on the park.
22 min: Ok, what have Argentina got? Well, if we have seen not much of Messi we have seen even less of Aguero.
20 min: Jesus deserved his goal. His liveliness is the reason he was getting so many kicks from the opposition. Needless to say, Messi’s face was a picture of derision of his teammates’ defending.
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Goal! Brazil 1-0 Argentina (Jesus, 19)
Alves out to Firmino on the right, and a sliding pass across the box, where Jesus is ready and waiting to score his first tournament goal in open play.
18 min: Otamendi takes out Jesus with a huge tackle, one to make Khaldoon Al-Mubarak wince.
16 min: Martinez forces a corner off Marquinhos, as Argentina start to step things up. It goes short to Messi and then to De Paul, whose cross is too low. Jesus speeds away on the counter, and is only just stopped by a desperate Juan Foyth.
14 min: A Messi slalom comes to an end when Coutinho is the last man in the pile-up to baulk the genius at work. Some afters as Paredes confronts Coutinho. ‘Nip and tuck,’ as they used to call it.
12 min: Close for Argentina! Leandro Paredes smashes it from 40 yards and only just over.
11 min: Roddy Zambrano is the referee tonight. He’s from Ecuador, and has a tough night ahead. The tackle is of an Old Firm level of agricultural, and Jesus is already being patched up.
9 min: Messi appears at last to complain about Tagliafico being booked for the latest foul on Jesus. Argentina didn’t have much of a case.
8 min: Argentina at last have the ball in enemy territory but soon lose it. Gabriel Jesus goes down, the second time he has got a whack already, but the referee waves that on.
6 min: No touch yet for Lionel Messi, but that’s standard in an Argentina shirt and often in a Barca shirt, too, these days.
5 min: Armani takes an age over his goal-kick, looks like Argentina are trying to take the sting out of this early storm.
4 min: Corner to Brazil forced by the effervescent Everton, though that’s headed clear.
2 min: Brazil are up for this and Dani Alves, the captain and 36-year-old veteran is leading the charge.
We're off!
And the boos tell us that Argentina are on the ball...then comes a Firmino shot, which looks to be offside, though the VAR is inconclusive. It could be one of those nights of technical confusion.
Martin Perrie emails in: “Good evening from a bar on the Copacabana. Is pretty quiet at the moment. A few Chileans in here and a chap in a Flamengo shirt.”
Can I say that Copacabana is one of the most overrated places I have ever been to? Rio in total, actually, and I did love being in Brazil. Preferred the industrialism of Sao Paulo and Belo because I am like that. And Manaus, which was superb.
The teams make their way to the field at the Mineirão stadium, the scene of this night for Brazil. And the anthems ring out, the Brazilians singing the last verse without the accompaniment of the band. That was...passionate. This one means more, yet more.
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Formations-wise, the word is that Brazil go 4-2-3-1 with Roberto Firmino furthest forward and Argentina go 4-3-2-1, with Lionel Messi behind Sergio Aguero and Lautaro Martinez as twin strikers..
With three of the quarter-finals finishing 0-0 at full-time - there was no extra-time in the quarters - the fear has to be a goalless draw. In the semis, there will be ET and P.
By the way, check the red-hot international action that was played on Saturday in men’s football. Thank goodness there were some goals in the Women’s World Cup. And penalties in the Copa, with Peru winning after the karmic comedy of Luis Suarez missing his spot-kick and Chile doing what they do in shootouts in this competition.
Afcon: Benin 0-0 Guinea Bissau, Cameroon 0-0 Ghana, Mauritania 0-0 Angola
Copa América: Uruguay 0-0 Peru, Colombia 0-0 Chile
Has Jonathan Wilson’s précis of Argentina’s problems lost its relevance in the days since he penned this? Nope, defeats of Qatar and Venezuela have not changed much despite Scaloni, the West Ham legend, stick to his selection guns.
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Want to know more about this august competition? This, from 2017 by the estimable Scott Murray should do the job.
Here’s the lowdown on the Brazil team news.
Casemiro back in for Allan after suspension. Alex Sandro replaces the injured Filipe Luis at left back #Bra #CopaAmerica https://t.co/56yxAY4zCS
— Tim Stillman (@Stillberto) July 2, 2019
Back to Neymar, who might not be playing but will be watching in Belo, and it is rumoured he will be meeting up old oppo Lionel Messi, to tease up the speculation that ‘Ney’ is on his way back to Barcelona in a move that confounds most of us.
Though the word is that Messi likes playing with Neymar and what Lionel wants, Lionel gets.
Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni has made an unorthodox move.
It's finally happened. After FORTY games Argentina have kept the same team from one game to another.
— Daniel Edwards 💚 (@DanEdwardsGoal) July 2, 2019
The last time Argentina played the same team two games in a row, Donald Trump was set to gain the Republican presidential nomination, a nervous UK geared up for the Brexit referendum with Remain holding a narrow lead in the polls and the dollar was at 16 Argentine pesos.
— Daniel Edwards 💚 (@DanEdwardsGoal) July 2, 2019
Argentina to play same XI against Brazil as against Venezuela, quite a bold move to have a three-man midfield against this Brazil team but probably best plan considering Venezuela was best performance.
— Richard Martin (@Rich9908) July 2, 2019
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Here's the starting line-ups
Brazil: Alisson; Dani Alves, Marquinhos, Thiago Silva; Alex Sandro; Arthur, Casemiro; Jesus, Coutinho, Everton; Firmino.
Argentina: Armani; Foyth, Pezzella, Otamendi, Tagliafico; De Paul, Paredes, Acúña; Messi; Lautaro; Agüero.
Meanwhile, here’s why some in Brazil are concerned about the future of the game:
The organisers of the Copa América insisted the opening match between Brazil and Bolivia would sell out the 67,000-capacity Morumbi stadium in São Paulo. It didn’t. Just 46,342 fans paid for tickets, leaving the ground just 70% full. With the game still goalless at half-time, the deafening silence turned to boos as Tite’s men trudged off the pitch. Two goals from Philippe Coutinho and a superb solo strike from Everton Soares gave Brazil a 3-0 win, but much of the debate after the game was about the crowd’s antipathy to their own team.
Manager Tite said he “expected” a negative reaction given the way his team played. “We need to understand. If we get forward and create chances they will applaud. Having been at big clubs, when you sometimes don’t produce, then don’t expect the fans to understand. They will boo. When you pass the ball along the back, from full-back to central defender to goalkeeper, the first thing you hear is boo.”
Dani Alves put the poor reception down to São Paulo’s clubismo tribalism and a lack of unity between fans of its three main teams. “Whenever we come here to Sao Paulo, that happens,” said Alves. “The people cannot separate their clubs from the Brazilian national team. In Bahia the energy is different. People miss the Brazil team, that energy the Seleção takes wherever it goes. Surely there will be more excitement than here.”
You can read the full report below:
Preamble
Come now, is there a grander, more historic international rivalry than that between Brazil and Argentina? There isn’t, you know. OK, both teams have rather lost their sheen these days, with Argentina essentially reduced to a cast of hapless clowns in Lionel Messi’s quest to win an international trophy. Brazil might have won the Olympics in 2016 but theirs has been a tale of the rest failing to live up to Neymar, and being used as some kind of Harlem Globetrotters cash cow for the national federation.
No Neymar, of course, this time around, but Messi is still huffing and puffing away, putting his hands on his hips and gesticulating as he does. And the signs of the 2-0 quarter-final defeat of Venezuela (ok, Venezuela) suggested that some other players might be coming to the fore. Giovani Lo Celso scored late on after Lautaro Martínez scored again.
Brazil needed penalties to beat Paraguay in their quarter-final, and they have been disjointed in attack though really quite decent in defence, having not yet conceded a goal.
We know what fate awaits Argentina if they get to the final losing to Chile on penalties as they did in 2015 and 2016 - but can Brazil make it through? They last won this tournament in 2007, whereas Argentina last won it in 1993. Both seem a very long time ago.
The overall record between the teams is 45 Brazil wins, 25 draws and 39 Argentina wins.
The game kicks off in Belo at 1.30 am UK time, 8.30 pm ET, 5.30 pm PT.
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