The Argentina coach, Edgardo Bauza, was unbowed after a 3-0 World Cup qualifying loss to Brazil and a fourth game without a win on Thursday, but promised his misfiring team still have qualification for the 2018 finals in Russia in their own hands.

“We still have a lot to do before the qualifiers end,” he said after Brazil’s easy victory in Belo Horizonte. “We know that classification still depends on what we do. The game against Colombia will be different.”

Argentina take on Colombia, the third-placed side, next week and are now sixth in the 10-team South American group on 16 points after 11 games, with only the top four automatically qualifying for Russia while the fifth-placed side faces a play-off with the Oceania winners. Bauza is likely to be heavily scrutinised after recording just one win in his five games in charge while his players will also face questions after they were outshone by Brazil’s three goalscorers Neymar, Philippe Coutinho and Paulinho.

Lionel Messi returned from three games out injured but was largely anonymous and there was little of note from strikers Gonzalo Higuaín or Angel Di María. Sergio Agüero replaced Enzo Pérez at half-time, but with Brazil dominant in the second period he had little chance to change the game. “When they hit us hard we struggled to recover,” Messi said. “We are more than aware that we have to change a lot. Of all the bad points, the good one is that we depend on ourselves but we can’t be giving away any more points.”

The Argentina sports newspaper Olé called the performance a “catastrophe” and, in a headline, classed the side’s current predicament as “Russian Roulette”. Argentina have won the World Cup twice and reached the final of their last three major tournaments but not won a senior title since the 1990s. Their next two games are against Colombia on Tuesday and then next March against the Copa América champions Chile, who are fifth in the table on 17 points.

Messi had begun the game with a lot of style at the Mineirão stadium and caused trouble for his marker, Fernandinho. The Manchester City midfielder was tricked by Messi and picked up a yellow card after a cynical foul on the Argentina forward. But as Paulinho and Renato Augusto helped out with defending, the only opportunities Messi had were from free-kicks around the penalty box.

The Brazil coach, Tite, explained the strategy designed to make Messi feel so uncomfortable in his return after three games. “We forced our way into the Argentina half more to the left so Messi wouldn’t be immediately near the ball, since he was on the right,” Tite said. “When he was forced to move it became better for us because that other side was already crowded.”

Neymar celebrates after scoring against Argentina. Photograph: Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images

Assessing Brazil’s strengths, Tite said Neymar played well because he was playing box-to-box with the same quality. “One of the biggest lies in football is that if you mark you will not have the energy to do well up front,” Tite said. “That is not the case.”

Liverpool’s in-form Coutinho added: “Today we imposed ourselves, the fans helped from the first minute and we leave here very happy.”

Brazil now lead the South American qualifying table with 24 points from 11 matches. Their supporters were delighted to win in the stadium of their most humiliating defeat. “If Neymar had played here in that game against Germany in the 2014 World Cup [when he was injured], we wouldn’t have lost 7-1,” said Eric Angelo, a Brazilian fan who watched Thursday’s match and was also at his team’s humiliating defeat here two years ago. “We would have had more confidence and maybe given the Germans a challenge.”