Brazil captain Thiago Silva was left angry and launched an attack on Lionel Messi after the slim defeat to Argentina in the Superclasico in Saudi Arabia friendly match.

Messi scored from the penalty spot that gave Argentina the 1-0 victory over Brazil and the PSG defender was of the view that Messi benefitted from his universal popularity and got favourable treatment from match officials.”He wanted to dictate the game,” Silva said of Messi in the post-match press conference.”He committed two bad fouls, argued with the referee and the referee did nothing, he didn’t give him a card.”The officials should put their admiration of the player to one side during games.”Silva then continued his frustration towards the lenient way that he believes Messi is dealt with by referees.

“He’s always looking to get the referee to award freekicks and throw-ins in dangerous areas,” Silva added.”He has always been that way. We have spoken with players in Spain and they say the same; he always attempts to control the game and influence the referee.”In the Champions League, he doesn’t get this advantage because the referees are tougher.”You can see that he doesn’t try and influence them as much during these games, but normally there are referees who grant favourable decisions because they admire him so much.”We, Brazil, were at a disadvantage in the game because we didn’t have Neymar in the starting eleven.”