LIMA, July 24: World champions Brazil meet arch-rivals Argentina on Sunday in a perfect finale to a Copa America that has already surpassed expectations.

The clash in Lima's national stadium comes less than two months after Brazil's 3-1 win in their World Cup qualifier in Belo Horizonte, when Ronaldo won and converted a hat trick of penalties.

However, the Real Madrid striker will not be present this time. Along with Kaka, Ronaldinho and Roberto Carlos, he is one of several top players to be rested for the tournament by coach Carlos Alberto Parreira.

Yet the five-time World Cup winners have managed to reach the final in an awesome demonstration of their strength in depth.

"We've shown the magnitude of Brazilian football," Parreira said.

Argentina, meanwhile, have almost certainly kept coach Marcelo Bielsa in his job by getting this far.

The introverted coach, who last week admitted he had trouble understanding himself, had not been expected to survive a poor tournament after a spell of lacklustre performances and unremarkable results.

Instead, Argentina have scored 14 goals and conceded four on their way to the final. Twenty-year-olds Javier Macherano and Carlos Tevez have been outstanding and Bielsa appears to have secured his position.

Brazil have also been unveiling alternatives to the old guard, in particular striker Adriano who is the Copa's top-scorer with six goals in five games, including a hat trick against Costa Rica.

The two giants of South American football have not met in the final since the Copa America was re-invented in the late 1980s and it appears organisers did not intend them to clash this time either.

Along with hosts Peru, the pair were top seeds for the three first round groups and would have met in the semifinals if everything had gone to plan and they had won their groups.

Peru, meanwhile, would not have run into either of them before the final.

However, all three teams finished as runners-up after the opening phase, with Argentina facing Peru in the quarterfinals and Brazil going into the other half of the draw.

Argentina coach Marcelo Bielsa has refused to accept his team are favourites despite Brazil's absentees.

"The question of favourites is a game which overloads the responsibilities of a team and lightens the load of the other," he said.

"The obligations which we feel arise from the sentiment of wanting to win."

Parreira said: "Argentina are a team who do everything well. They mark well, they run a lot and they play well when they've got the ball.

"They're a team who can play and stop the opposition from playing."

He added, however: "There's no reason for us to be afraid of them."

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