World Cup Winning Argentina Players Were Scrapping With Brazilian Cops To Protect Their Fans (Videos)

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Prior to Argentina’s historic 1-0 World Cup qualifying win in Brazil on Tuesday night, courtesy of a Nicolas Otamendi second-half headed goal, ugly scenes unfolded in the stands between Argentinian fans, Brazilian fans, and Brazilian police.

The scenes were so wrought, in fact, that some of Argentina’s World Cup-winning players, notably goalkeeper Emi Martinez, were seen getting involved in the fracas. Martinez even took a swipe at one of the Brazilian cops.

A second video shows further scenes of chaos at the match, with Brazilian cops swinging their batons and Argentinian supporters, leaving some of them bloodied and requiring medical attention.

Despite the violence in the stands, the World Cup qualifying match between eventually kicked off and was unsurprisingly a scrappy affair. In the first half alone, in fact, there 22 fouls and three yellow cards.

Argentina, who won the World Cup almost a year ago in Qatar, was able to escape with a massive 1-0 victory thanks to Otamendi’s bullet header off of a corner kick in the 63rd minute of the match.

The loss was also Brazil’s first-ever World Cup qualifying defeat on home soil. Brazil finds themselves in a tough stretch of form as the defeat was their third straight loss.

Following the match, Argentina captain Lionel Messi explained the team’s decision to walk off the pitch and delay the start of the match.

“We saw how they [the police] were hitting people as it happened in the Copa Libertadores final, once again repressing the people with sticks,” Messi said. “Many players had family members in that area. And, of course, we think about them and everyone else there too. We were focused on that instead of playing the game, as at that point it wasn’t a priority.”

The World Cup qualifier on Tuesday night will be the last match that Argentina and Brazil play for a while as the next international break on the global football calendar isn’t until March.