“Our destiny is still in our own hands”.
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“Argentina had a few opportunities but we knew how to read the game well we knew the right time to attack”.
Brazil leads the qualifying group with 21 points from 10 games, one ahead of Uruguay, four ahead of Colombia and Ecuador, and five up on Argentina and Chile.
Only the top four are guaranteed qualification, with the fifth-placed team playing a playoff.
Brazil’s rediscovered joie de vivre has been best exemplified by the form of Neymar, dazzling in last month’s win over Bolivia, while others such as Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino have also shone under Tite.
Brazil’s comprehensive dispatching of Argentina was their fifth successive win under Tite’s watch, leaving the Selecao coach with a 100% winning record.
It goes without saying that Neymar will be the key man for Brazil, while Lionel Messi is the star player of Argentina.
“When they hit us hard, we struggled to recover”, said Messi, who plays alongside Neymar at Barcelona. “We have a lot of merit not only in offence, but also defending”, Brazil midfielder Renato Augusto said. “They were really tough opponents, but we expected a little more from ourselves”.
Argentina sports newspaper Ole called the performance a “catastrophe” and in a headline classed the side’s current predicament as “Russian Roulette”.
The score kept Argentina in the sixth position of South America’s World Cup qualifiers.
Elsewhere, Copa America champions Chile held Colombia to a goalless away draw despite the absence of Arsenal striker Alexis Sanchez due to an injury.
Brazil powered into a 2-0 lead in the first half after two wonderfully worked goals from Coutinho and Neymar.
None of the players spoke to the waiting media on landing in the Brazilian city, and instead, dodged through security and headed straight to their respective national team’s hotels.
Coach Tite said that the impressive result comes after a sleepless night for him.
Brazil’s third and final goal was scored by Paulinho, whose deflected effort on 58 minutes sealed the 3-0 victory for the home side, who completely outplayed Argentina.
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In a session with ESPN later on, the Barcelona living legend called for unity among his peers as this is a situation that demands the group to be tightly bound together if they are to get out of this rut.
