Argentina shows Raphinha who's boss in South America

The Barcelona player spoke before the match and left the Monumental thrashed.

If there's one thing Raphinha will take away from this match against Argentina, it's learning not to speak prematurely . Criticism from his fellow countrymen was overwhelming at home; few understood why the Barcelona player had so childishly reviled the derby against Argentina, saying in an interview with Romario: " We're going to beat them on and off the pitch ."

The truth is, those words made no sense at all. Argentina could have gone into the match against Brazil, already qualified for the World Cup, with "nothing" at stake . But no, the words quickly spread from cell phone to cell phone across the country and, of course, reached the national team players, who, at the first opportunity, let them know.

"Talk less, talk less," Otamendi told the Barcelona players after the number 11 pushed Tagliafico. The Blaugrana forward was responsible for heating up the atmosphere and didn't appear during the match except for a direct free kick that hit the crossbar by Dibu Martínez.

Paredes also spoke about the situation: "You shouldn't talk about it beforehand, you shouldn't say these kinds of things when you can't prove it on the pitch. They sent it to the WhatsApp group and we discussed it. Whenever this kind of thing happens, we stand up for ourselves, and we did it again ."

Argentina swept Brazil and Raphinha off the field, showing them that this isn't won off the pitch, it's won on it. If the Argentines didn't have any incentive (playing against Brazil already is), they found it in the words of the opposing player, showing them that the world champion and two-time champion of the Americas is Argentina, not them.