Let’s begin this with an apology to fans of Croatia and the Netherlands: no hard feelings here. Given the courageous respective paths your teams have traveled to get to the quarterfinal stage of the 2022 World Cup, remaining undefeated is a commendable act.
However, the truth is that as much as I appreciate Luka Modric‘s artistry or Cody Gakpo‘s infectious energy, this is where I hope it ends for you both, and I think it’s fair to say that most of the neutral fans agree with me, especially South Americans.
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It’s time to see the greatest rivalry in international football. It’s time for history, where Albiceleste grit meets Brazilian swagger. Where the ghosts of 1939-40 (Argentina won 5-1, 6-1 and 5-1) and 1963 (Brazil victorious with a 5-2 result, a year after winning the World Cup, Pele scoring a hat trick) resurface to remind us of the matches that painted this tumultuous encounter.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I have enjoyed the action and storylines from this tournament, from Morocco‘s heroic display against the chess-playing Spain to the prodigious performances of Kylian Mbappe, but the World Cup is at its best when it also gives us a match that transcends the subtleties of technical ability or managerial face-offs. In this day and age, with technology infiltrating the game more than ever before, when the action stops at every given opportunity merely so the referee can look at the screen and check if a player’s eyebrow has been checked for offside, we need this matchup more than ever.
“This is the biggest rivalry. There is no bigger match for Brazil than playing against Argentina,” says my colleague Gustavo Hofman, reporter for ESPN Brasil, who has been covering the Brazilian national team throughout the World Cup from Qatar. “This is our Clasico, they are our neighbors, and they are our biggest rivals.
“I can already sense the tension and anxiety from both sides for this type of semifinal. But at the end of the day, the great players are there for a reason and journalists from both sides want to see Brazil vs. Argentina.”