Brazil will have to be “very aggressive” in attack and defense when they host Argentina on Tuesday, coach Fernando Diniz said on Monday, admitting to being worried about facing Lionel Messi, one of the “best players Of the history”.
“I hope the team will be very intense, very aggressive to attack and also to score,” he said during a press conference at the training center of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) in Teresopolis, in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
“Everyone wants their team to attack well and defend well in the same proportions. I expect a balanced team, without losing the efficiency and creative power it already has,” he added.
The Seleçao is under pressure before the Superclasico at the Maracana stadium: it has gone three matches without a victory, including two consecutive defeats, which had never happened to it in the South American qualifiers for a World Cup.
The Brazilians are fifth with seven points, while their great rivals, crowned world champions in Qatar in 2022, are first with 12 points in five matches.
The Albiceleste nevertheless lost 2-0 against Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay on Thursday at the La Bombonera stadium in Buenos Aires.
“I’m not used to making a lot of changes, but we will make some adjustments because Argentina is a very qualified team and they have Messi. We will try to assert our qualities, to impose ourselves, taking all the necessary precautions because it is not by chance that they are world champions and that they have one of the best players in history” , he stressed.
Brazil will also have to deal with the absence of five starters, including captain Casemiro as well as stars Neymar and Vinicius Jr, who are injured.
“These are players we need at all levels, on and off the pitch,” said Diniz, who assured that his team was in the process of being renewed, unlike the established Argentine selection of Lionel Scaloni.
PSG defender Marquinhos, who will recover the captain’s armband, spoke on Monday of a “delicate moment” for the Seleçao, while believing that they will have the “courage” to emerge victorious against Argentina.
Diniz, 49, said he did not wonder whether Tuesday’s derby would be his last official match in charge of Brazil, which he took over in July on a 12-month contract.
The seventh and eighth days of the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup will take place in September.