The Río de la Plata classic is one of the oldest rivalries in the world, but was only played in the qualifiers in 1997.
Argentina And Uruguay They have one of the oldest rivalries in history. The first edition of the Río de La Plata classic was the first national team match played outside the British Isles and marked the start of a dispute that has lasted for more than a hundred years.
The first confrontation between the two took place on May 16, 1901 in Montevideo and ended with a 3-2 victory for the Albiceleste. Since then, the match has taken place in all existing official competitions – including a World Cup final – and has a major advantage for the current world champion on an overall level.
This Thursday, November 16, Argentina and Uruguay will play a new edition of the classic for the fifth date of the South American qualifiers towards the 2026 World Cup in North America, exactly two years after the last time they saw each other: November 12 In 2021 defeated Lionel Scaloni’s team won the Celeste 1-0 in Montevideo, which was the third consecutive victory for the Albiceleste in head-to-head matches.
Below is the competition-by-competition breakdown of the classic’s history:
ELIMINATORIES
Despite the very long rivalry between the two, Argentina and Uruguay only met for the first time in the qualifying matches on January 12, 1997, during the qualifying for the ’98 World Cup in France, in a match that ended in a 0-0 draw. Montevideo. The last crossing was 1-0 in the Champion of the Century, on November 12, 2021.
AMERICA CUP
The continental competition is logically the competition in which both teams faced each other most often. And the record is in Argentina’s favor by two games, after the 1-0 in the group stage of Brazil 2021.
WORLD CUP
The Río de La Plata Clásico was played just twice in the top international competition and things were evenly matched, winning one match each. The first was precisely the first World Cup in the history of football. Uruguay, the host, defeated the Albiceleste in the final 4-2 and became champions. The second and last time the two teams met was in the second round of Mexico 1986 and the victory was 1-0 for Argentina, who would later become champions.
OTHER COMPETITIONS
Argentina and Uruguay faced each other twice at the Olympics, when it was still a senior national team competition and not a youth competition. Both matches took place in Amsterdam 1928, in the gold medal match: the first match was 1-1 and as there were no extra times or penalties at that time, the match was repeated three days later and the Celeste won 2-1 . .
FRIENDLY
In addition to the official matches, Argentina and Uruguay regularly faced each other in friendly matches, from the first meeting in 1901 to the 2-2 in Tel Aviv in November 2019. Also in this modality, the Albiceleste benefits with a difference of 26 games.
GENERAL HISTORY
If all the matches played between the two teams in history are added together, Argentina has a 32-match lead over Uruguay, in a rivalry that is already close to 200 matches.
Source: Goal