RIO DE JANEIRO – Police trying to control a rowdy crowd of Argentine soccer fans have used pepper spray to keep them from blocking a main road running in front of Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach.
Waving flags and banners on Saturday, more than a thousand Argentine fans dressed in their team’s traditional blue are yelling out soccer chants and exclaiming their team’s superiority.
Argentina plays Bosnia-Herzegovina Sunday in Rio’s iconic Maracana stadium.
Argentina fan Roberto Pons, sporting long, gray hair that ran down to his speedo swimming trunks, was yelling “Copacabana belongs to Argentina!” Other fans were poking fun at any England supporter that happened to wander by.
Argentina is an intense rival on the soccer field and off for both neighboring Brazil and England.