Called the “Anfisa Classic”, the confrontation between Brazil and Argentina for the South American qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup has one last date. FIFA has decided that the match, which was suspended on September 5 last year, will take place on September 22. The time and place of the match, which will be under the leadership of the Brazilian Confederation, has yet to be chosen.
Colin Smith, FIFA’s Head of Competitions and Events, informed the Brazilian Football Confederation and the Asian Football Confederation by email the date chosen for the classic. And the Football Association warned that the Brazilian Confederation has until June 22 to decide in which stadium the match will be played. In contact with Estadão, the Brazilian Football Confederation said it had received the documents from FIFA today and would “discuss internally the next steps”.
The five minutes of that match took place in August of last year at the New Coimica Arena in Sao Paulo. But there is nothing that compels the CBF to keep Corinthians as the scene of a duel.
The match valid for the sixth round of qualifying was interrupted five minutes into the first half by representatives of the Health Monitoring Agency (Anvisa) who entered the field due to the entry of four Argentine players playing in the United Kingdom. Failure to respect the Brazilian health rules against COVID-19.
The four Argentina national team players involved in the controversy, Emiliano Buendia, Emiliano Martinez, Giovanni Locelso and Christian Romero, have been banned for two matches for not complying with FIFA’s international protocol on returning to football.
The game is of little importance in terms of the leaderboard, as the Brazilian national team has the best campaign in history in this form of playoffs, with 45 points, and Argentina cannot reach it with six points less. Both finished the playoffs undefeated.
However, the match has a relevance to the sporting factor, to complete the qualifying table and also because it is one of the greatest classics of world football. In the absence of matches against European rivals, Argentina is seen as the strongest competitor to the Brazilians ahead of the cup.
Brazil and Argentina will play again before facing each other in September. The two rivals will play a friendly match on June 11 in Australia. Tite’s team will also play friendlies against South Korea and Japan in June and Mexico in September.
The choice must present itself in preparation for the World Cup in Qatar on 14 November. The first training courses will be in Europe. After that, the delegation travels to Doha. The first World Cup will take place against Serbia on November 24.
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