The Melbourne Cricket Ground will host the Superclasico football match between Brazil and Argentina later this year, it has been announced.
Brazil and Argentina will head to Australia on June 11, with the match to serve as a warm-up for both teams ahead of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar at the end of the year.
The two nations last met at the MCG in 2017 in a match that attracted 95,569 fans. It marked the largest crowd for a football match at the stadium, surpassing the previous record which was set during a friendly between Liverpool and Melbourne Victory in 2013.
The Superclasico was created in 2011 as a two-game series between Brazil and Argentina before becoming a one-off match at a neutral venue from 2014. The most recent edition took place at the King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2019.
Martin Pakula, Victoria’s Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, said: “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.”
Stuart Fox, chief executive of the Melbourne Cricket Club, added: “We are delighted to welcome two footballing giants back to the MCG to dazzle Melbourne and Australian football and general sports fans, and in a World Cup year no less.”
This year’s World Cup in Qatar begins on November 21 and runs until December 18.
Photo by Rodger Wang on Unsplash
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