With their big stars on the field, Argentina and Brasil have a date with destiny on Saturday at the world famous Maracaná in Rio de Janeiro to decide who will be the 2021 CONMEBOL Copa América champion.
This epic duel will see Lionel Messi on one side and Neymar on the other, two of the greatest players on the planet. The game will kickoff at 21:00 local time with fans around tuning in for this dream final.
Old friends and this weekend fierce rivals. The classy, inventive, elegant attacking pair have been at their very best during this year's Copa America for their respective sides.
In the quarterfinal, la Albiceleste won 3-0 against Ecuador before narrowly getting past Colombia in the semifinal. A motivated, inspiration Lionel Messi has been the star alongside the likes of Lautaro Martínez, Rodrigo de Paul and their new hero, the goalkeeper Emiliano ‘Dibu' Martinez.
As for Brazil, Neymar and Lucas Paquetá have liked well in attack ahead of a very organized, strong defensive unit that has taken them to the final.
Paquetá scored the goals in Brazil's 1-0 wins against Chile and Peru on their knockout stage run to the final.
The managers are also enjoying an impressive run of results with both unbeaten since 2019. The last Brazilian defeat came against Argentina in a November friendly, the last Argentine defeat came against Brazil in the Copa America. On Sunday this incredible unbeaten run will end for one of the two sides.
All these ingredients make for what should be one of the great finals in the history of the CONMEBOL Copa América.
-Details-
Stadium: Maracaná (Río de Janeiro)
Time: 21:00 (00:00 GMT Saturday)
Referee: Esteban Ostojich (URU)
TV: TyC Sports, TV Pública y DirecTV (Argentina); SBT y ESPN Brasil (Brazil).
-History-
- Brazil and Argentina will meet for the 34th time at the Copa America. Braziljugarán por Copa América por 34° ocasión. Brazil won 10 games, Argentina won 15 and the rest of the games finished level. This is the eigth time they have played in Brazil and the hosts have never lost.
- Argentina has lost the last 6 finals they have played at senior level (Copa America 2004, 2007, 2015, 2016, Confedrations Cup 2005 and the World Cup 2014). Three of these defeats were against Brazil (Copa America 2004, 2007 and Confederations Cup 2005).
- Brazil are unbeaten in 6 games against Argentina in the CONMEBOL Copa América (3 wins, 3 draws). Their last defeat came in 1993 (3-2). Brazil are also unbeaten against Argentina in 7 games in all competitions (5 wins, 2 draws).
- Argentina has won only 1 of their last 19 visits to Brazil (4 draws, 14 losses). Their only win was a friendly at the Maracaná in 1998.
- Brazil and Argentina meet for the 13th time at the Maracaná: Brazil has won 7, Argentina 2 and their have been 3 draws. The last meeting came in 1998 and was the last win for Argentina (1-0 in a friendly). This will be the fourth meeting of the two at the stadium in the CONMEBOL Copa América: Brazil won 2 (1979 y 1989) and drew the third (1983).
- Brazil are unbeaten in 26 games at home in the CONMEBOL Copa América (17 wins, 9 draws). They have only lost 2 of 46 games (31 wins, 13 draws) played at home in the competition: against Paraguay (1-2 in 1949) and Peur (1-3 in 1975).
- Argentina has only lost one of their last 6 games against the hosts at the CONMEBOL Copa América (3 wins, 2 draws). This defeat came in 2019 against Brazil (2-0).
- Lionel Scaloni and Tite will meet for the fourth time. Brazil has won twice (1-0 in 2018 and 2-0 in 2019) while Argentina has won once (1-0 in November 2019). This Argentine win was the last defeat Tite has suffered as Brazil boss.
- Lionel Messi and Neymar have met on 5 occasions; the Argentina has won 3 and the Brazilian 2. For their respective national teams each has won twice, while the last game was the the final of the 2011 World Club Cup in 2011 (4-0).
