Brazil coach Tite has turned things around in qualifying

With Messi missing, Argentina lost one and drew two of their last three games, a run of results that saw them fall off the pace.

“Our destiny is still in our own hands. We have no margin of error”, defender Pablo Zabaleta said.

“But it’s true we are aware and we know that this is not the way to do things”.

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. The fifth-placed team will take on the winners of the Oceania qualifiers in a playoff match for the ticket into the finals.

Goals from Philippe Coutinho, Neymar and Paulinho made it five wins in a row for Brazil, thus cementing their place at the top of the South American standings and making them near certainties for the 2018 World Cup in Russian Federation.

That’s while Argentina have also been gearing up for their crucial encounter against Brazil.

Messi and his Barcelona teammate Javier Mascherano, who came to Brazil in Neymar’s jet, were below par during the whole game. And there was little of note from strikers Gonzalo Higuain or Angel di Maria.

Brazil were dominant in a rampant second half and could have scored more with Neymar and substitute Robero Firmino both coming close.

“They do well because they deal well with the athletes, they are very human”, Costa said. We still depend on ourselves but we can not give away points, especially at home.

Argentine sports newspaper Ole called the performance a “catastrophe” and in a headline classed the side’s current predicament as “Russian Roulette”.

But the prodigal son U-turned his decision only six weeks later to appear in Argentina’s World Cup qualifiers. They’ve won the gold in the Rio 2016 Olympics and since then, they have won all four qualifiers under their new manager Tite.

Brazil went 2-0 up shortly before the halftime whistle when Neymar picked up a through ball and finished with a low shot past Romero. But this is a different team, mainly because of Tite.

“The start was better than I expected”.

Even after the game was no longer a contest, the Brazilian team kept trying to score more goals – also a trait that the team hadn’t shown in past years.

Stay tuned here for goals and highlights from key plays throughout this match. “They are together every day”.

Asked about Messi on Wednesday and his plans to try and stop the 29-year-old Barcelona maestro, Tite, without giving too much away, said: “Lionel Messi does not stop, Neymar does not stop”.

Messi and Argentina face a five-month stay outside the qualifying places if they can not handle their business at home to Colombia on Tuesday.