In a fiery game that saw these two South American giants battle it out, Lionel's Messi's penalty secured the victory against their rivals in Qatar. This means he has extended his country's unbeaten run to six games.
There was plenty of drama inside the first quarter of an hour. The first real action was a penalty, after Gabriel Jesus was bundled over by Pezzella in the box. Jesus stepped up to take the penalty and tried to trick the keeper with a slow penalty to the right, although the keeper dived the wrong way, Jesus could not hit the target and his shot went wide. A terrible penalty which could have put Brazil in the lead and changed the game entirely.
Less than five minutes later there was another penalty, this time at the other end, as Leo Messi went down in the box due to a foul from Alex Sandro, who clumsily caught him from behind. Messi took the penalty and Alisson managed to save it, but Messi was too quick and slotted the rebound into the back of the net before anybody could stop him. It was 0-1 in the 11th minute!
Brazil tried and tried to hunt for the equaliser, but they were sloppy on the ball and did not really make any of their chances count and the first half finished 0-1.
Brazil showed their quality a little more in the second half, but also summed up their inability to finish, as they had a lot of the ball, but could not take advantage of this, which cost them greatly in the end.
Towards the end, Argentina were sensing another goal after they put a lot of pressure on in their attacking third, but Alisson did well and made a lot of good saves to ensure that Brazil did not fall behind even deeper.
After a game that saw a lot of yellow cards and a lack of quality from Brazil. Argentina came away with the win, which they will be very pleased about. This was a game of very few shots and very few chances of real quality. Brazil did not perform up to standard and although the had a lot of the ball, they could not do anything with it. Very poor from Brazil and very good on and off the ball for Argentina. Final score Brazil 0-1 Argentina!
Argentina's unbeaten run extends to six games and they will be hoping to end their year on a high with another win against Uruguay on Monday. Brazil's winless run continues as Tite's side are now without a win in five games. He will be hoping to turn things around in their next game though when they face South Korea.