Brazil

A charter plane carrying 81 passengers including Brazil's Chapecoense football team and a large press contingent crashed en route to Medellin, Colombia on Monday night.

Ze Roberto might just be the most unheralded footballer of all time. The 42-year-old left back has amassed almost 100 caps with Brazil, is a legend at Bayern Munich and has a trophy cabinet that includes (and this is the abridged version):

If you believe in soccer, you have to believe in miracles. And a 31-year-old goalkeeper in Brazil nicknamed Danilo just performed the greatest of miracles against a team that has none other than the Pope as its most avid fan.

Odds are, unless you are an avid spectator of the Brazilian League you have never seen or heard of Danilo. Let us provide a brief introduction.

Carolina Portaluppi has almost 500,000 followers on Instagram and is the daughter of Gremio coach Renato Gaucho. For these reasons, cameras were unfairly turned on her during the final stages of Gremio’s 2-0 aggregate victory over Cruzeiro in the Brazilian Cup semifinals.

“We need to change this s---ty situation. We didn't expect this result. It could have even been worse. We weren't able to react,” Lionel Messi said after Thursday’s match, summing up their loss to Brazil as well as anyone could. 

Judging by their recent form and the fact that Brazil never lost a World Cup Qualifiers match at home, it would be no stretch to predict a draw or a win against Argentina. 

Madrid-based football journalist Sid Lowe brought a very simple realization to our attention while covering the Real Mardid vs. Legia Warsaw UEFA Champions League match last week. The 3-3 draw was played out behind closed doors in Poland after Legia fans had been found guilty of a myriad of crowd disturbances during their match against Borussia Dortmund.

There is so much hype going into the Brazil versus Argentina match that it is tough to even decide where to begin. Arguably the most heated international derby on the planet, every time Brazil and Argentina meet it’s a special occasion. This Thursday’s match, however, has some extra plot elements that make this particular encounter a unique and spicy affair. 

When Neymar first burst onto the world stage, he was only 18. So we gave him a pass for his actions, assuming he would grow up and stop flopping and starting fights as he got older. 

However it seems that he might never grow up, as, despite playing internationally for six years now, he is still apparently doing things like this:

Neymar pushes Granada's player down the stairs while approaching tunnel. pic.twitter.com/DjQWR8yYms