Brazil vs Argentina
Brazil and Argentina are South America's two largest economies and its fiercest football rivals, but they took almost opposite paths to get where they are — Brazil colonised by Portugal and speaking Portuguese, Argentina by Spain and speaking Spanish, in a continent where Spanish is otherwise the overwhelming majority language.
| 🇧🇷 Brazil | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
|---|---|---|
| Capital | Brasília | Buenos Aires |
| Continent | South America | South America |
| Population | 216,400,000 | 45,800,000 |
| Area | 8,515,767 km² | 2,780,400 km² |
| Currency | Brazilian Real | Argentine Peso |
| Main language | Portuguese | Spanish |
Brazil's population is roughly 5× Argentina's.
Brazil is a continental giant, bigger than the continental United States and home to roughly five times Argentina's population, with the Amazon basin covering most of its north. Argentina is smaller but still enormous by world standards, stretching from subtropical border regions in the north to Patagonian glaciers near Antarctica in the south — one of the greatest north-to-south climate ranges of any single country.
The football rivalry (Pelé's Brazil against Maradona's, then Messi's, Argentina) is one of the sport's defining ones, but it sits on top of a genuine economic and diplomatic competition for regional leadership that predates either player.