Alves hopes Messi has an off day in Brazil clash

Brazil defender Dani Alves hopes former club team-mate Lionel Messi has an ‘off day’ for Argentina in Thursday’s World Cup qualifier.

The rival nations meet in Belo Horizonte in a cruical fixture on the journey to Russia 2018, with the city having seen the Selecao’s infamous 7-1 defeat to Germany in the World Cup two years ago.

Alves, now at Juventus, believes if the Barcelona star is in his best form it will be difficult to defend against the 29-year-old.

33-year-old Alves was showing off his number four jersey he’ll wear for the match, rather than his usual number two, in honour of Carlos Alberto.

“I hope Lionel Messi doesn’t have his best day, because that happens in our lives, no matter how hard we work. There are some days when you get on the pitch and you’re not having your best day, and we expect that, it will help us a lot.

“But if he is in his best form, we will try to neutralise him and compete, without fear, as Lucas Pratto said, we are not afraid. We have the necessary respect but we don’t have feat. We want to compete as we know, as this game asks and try to come back with the victory, taking great steps towards our goal,” the former teammate of Messi at Barca said.

Marquinhos insists though the team can’t just focus on Messi, with Argentina hosting a number of star players in attack.

Brazil lead South America’s World Cup qualifying on 21 points after 10 matches, with Argentina down in sixth on 16 points outside the qualification places.

“Tite is passionate about football. He can manage simple things on football into perfection. So he is a coach who works hard on the human aspect, the collective part, before highlighting the individualities of each player and that is what is making a difference in our team.

“That’s important to our role. Messi is a great player. but we cannot forget the offensive power that Argentina has. If we focus just on Messi, other players will be able to take the ball and make a difference. We have been worked and training in our collective systems to try and nullify Argentina on all sides of the pitch and all players who have the ball in our defensive side. So if we play in a compact way, intercepting passes, doubling the marking when necessary, we can reduce the strength that Argentina has,” Marquinos added.