From customer to executioner
The first clash between Barcelona’s young promise and the five-time world champion team took place in a friendly on September 2, 2006 and was not at all positive for Messi, who left the field defeated.
And this scenario repeated itself for a long time. It was only in the fifth meeting with Brazil, in November 2010, that the Argentine number 10 obtained his first victory against his arch-rival… and also found the net for the first time.
From then on, the balance of dominance of the classics gradually reversed until reaching the current scenario, in which the brothers have been calling the shots.
Brazil’s last victory over Messi came in the semifinals of the Copa América-2019. Afterwards, the number 10 defeated tomorrow’s opponent twice (one of them in the Copa América-2021 decision, at Maracanã, his first title for the main team) and had a draw in the qualifiers for the Qatar Cup-2022.
Risk of not going to the World Cup?
Despite the sequence of three consecutive stumbles (draw with Venezuela and defeats to Uruguay and Colombia), Brazil is still within the classification zone for the 2026 World Cup. The Canarian team occupies fifth place in the qualifiers, with seven points won, three more than Ecuador, Paraguay and Chile, which appear next.
