What Alexis Mac Allister and Lionel Messi did to stop 'tragedy' happening before Brazil vs Argentina

Alexis Mac Allister got the better of Liverpool team-mate Alisson Becker as Argentina earned a 1-0 victory over Brazil last night.

The World Cup winners edged the battle between the two fierce South American rivals, with former Manchester City defender Nicolás Otamendi bagging the only goal of the game for the visitors in the 63rd minute.

Yet the Maracana encounter was marred by ugly scenes ahead of kick-off. A fracas broke out in the stands broke out, which caused the police to charge at the Argentina fans. That led to La Albiceleste's starting line-up, which included Mac Allister, to go over to try to defuse the situation.

After the game, Lionel Messi admitted that there could have been a 'tragedy' in the Rio de Janeiro stadium. He said: "It was bad because we saw how they were beating people.

"The police, as happened in the Libertadores final, were once again repressing the people with nightsticks. We went to the locker room because it was the best way to calm everything down, it could have ended in tragedy.

"You think about the families, the people who are there, who don't know what's going on and we were more concerned about that than playing a match that, at that point, was of secondary importance."

The game eventually went ahead 30 minutes after kick-off was scheduled. Mac Allister played the entire 90 minutes for Argentina and interestingly was deployed in a left-midfield role of a 4-4-2 formation.

Mac Allister and Alisson will now travel back to Merseyside ahead of Liverpool's Premier League top-of-the-table showdown against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium. Mac Allister, a £35 million summer signing, is once again available for the Reds after missing the 3-0 victory against Brentford before the international break because of suspension.

Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz will also return from South America after representing Uruguay and Colombia respectively. Nunez fired a double in Uruguay's 3-0 win against Bolivia while Diaz featured in Colombia's 1-0 triumph against Paraguay.