Brazil’s squad trained for the first time in Melbourne on Monday for their upcoming friendlies against Argentina and Australia.

Asked by a reporter whether playing against Messi was something special, he simply replied with “no” causing many in the room to chuckle.

The 29-year-old proceeded to say Brazil were focusing on themselves.

“The most important thing is our preparation and what we will do during the match, everybody will prepare themselves to be better against Argentina,” Gil said after their first training session on Monday.

“Messi is essential for them because of his quality but our preparation is most important.”

It was announced on May 12 that the clash between the South American giants was a sell-out.

Organisers of the event were confident the game would attract numbers with Messi after a disastrous International Champions Cup (ICC) in 2016 which saw Atletico Madrid, Tottenham and Juventus visit Melbourne.

The largest crowd was just over 42,000 in the 2016 ICC which disappointed many after a successful campaign in the previous year.

Gil had to be reminded Sydney FC and Adelaide United were the Australian teams Shandong met in the AFC Asian Champions League (ACL) but he was ready for the challenge.

Brazil train for the first time at Lakeside Stadium, Melbourne, on Monday

Liverpool were entertained by Melbourne Victory in 2013 which had 95,000 crammed into the stadium and Gil admits he has never played in a crowd that big.

“I’ve never played in anything like this, we had some games in the Corinthians Arena not with this kind of crowd,” he admitted.

Brazil and Bayern Munich defender Rafinha also said despite the upcoming games being friendlies, they were keen to keep the crowd warm in the cold weather.

It is the 31-year-old’s first visit to Melbourne.

“It will be two friendlies but the teams want to play against Brazil and everyone wants to play well against Argentina,” Rafinha said.

“It’s a friendly but when we get on the field it becomes a normal game so everybody wants to win.”