BRASÍLIA — There is a new song going around the World Cup, a ditty sung by the Argentines to taunt their Brazilian hosts and longstanding rivals. The gist is simple. It asks the Brazilians how they feel about being bossed around in their own country and tells them to prepare for an Argentine championship on their own soil.

It ends with the most incendiary statement of all: “Maradona es mas grande que Pele.”

Even the Argentine players were singing it in their locker room after their 1-0 victory against Switzerland on Tuesday, just the latest salvo fired in one of international soccer’s greatest rivalries.

The song, provocative and perhaps disrespectful, will probably be heard at Estádio Nacional on Saturday, when Argentina plays Belgium in a World Cup quarterfinal, as it was at a makeshift campground here filling up with Argentine fans. But the song is not nearly as provocative as what could come later.

For many Brazilians, the notion of tens of thousands of Argentines roaming their countryside and descending en masse in various Brazilian cities is unappealing on its own. But the idea of them winning the World Cup on Brazilian soil, with Lionel Messi hoisting the trophy at Estádio do Maracanã and all those fans in sky blue and white drunkenly celebrating in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, is almost too much to bear.