South American powerhouses Argentina and Brazil are returning to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (Australia) for a June showdown in the lead-up to this year’s World Cup.
‘The Guardian’ stated that on April 20th, the Victorian Government confirmed the Superclásico will be played at the Melbourne Stadium on June 11th, five years after the world football giants packed it out with more than 95,000 fans for a friendly.
The 1,00,024-capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as ‘The G’, is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria (Australia).
The Brazil-Argentina football rivalry (also known as Superclásico de las Américas and Superclássico das Américas) is a sports rivalry between the national football teams of the two countries and their respective sets of fans.
The Government expects the match to deliver a multimillion dollar boost to the Victorian economy and attract thousands of visitors to Melbourne.
Said the State’s Tourism, Sport and Major Events Minister, Martin Pakula, “To have two of the most successful football teams in the world return to the MCG to continue their longstanding rivalry reinforces our position as one of the world’s great sporting Cities and Australia’s event capital. Football is known as the world game and a match of this caliber will put millions of eyes on Melbourne and attract thousands of visitors to Victoria.”
‘The Guardian’ further stated that the previous meeting between Argentina and Brazil – a World Cup qualifier in São Paulo (Brazil) last September – was sensationally abandoned just minutes into the game when home health authorities forced the game to be stopped due to COVID-19 concerns involving four visiting players.
With both teams now safely qualified for Qatar 2022, the June meeting in Australia should provide the Argentina captain, Lionel Messi, and the Brazil superstar, Neymar, the platform to showcase their mercurial talents.
In 2017, a lone goal was enough to give Argentina victory over Brazil, while 10 years earlier Messi helped the Albiceleste (Argentina national football team) defeat the Socceroos (Australia national football team) 1-0 at the MCG.
Pakula said the June friendly follows a string of major events in Victoria – “Securing the Superclásico 2022 comes after a record-breaking Australian Grand Prix, the Rip Curl Pro, Australian Open, and a jam-packed theater calendar that includes Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Moulin Rouge! The Musical.”
The 2022 World Cup kicks off in Qatar on November 21st, with the final on December 18th.
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