CColombia remained, for now, in second place in the qualifying table for the 2026 World Cup in North America. on a day in which Argentina emerged unscathed from its visit to Venezuela in Maturín and in which Brazil made a great leap in the table by winning as a visitor.
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In a day that confirmed the little margin that some teams have, Brazil got three valuable points in Santiago against a Chile that is on its way to being left out of its third consecutive World Cup, after not qualifying for Russia-2018 and Qatar-2022.
The five-time world champion arrived in Santiago with four defeats in the last five qualifying games and was lifted by an early goal from Eduardo Vargas, one of the survivors of the ‘Golden Generation’ in Ricardo Gareca’s Chile.
Brazil regained ground by tying at the end of the first half with a header from striker Igor Jesus. The only spark of ‘jogo bonito’ for Brazil, which is still far from the brilliance that its history requires, came in the 89th minute with a whip from Luiz Henrique that became the saving 1-2.
“In two years we are going to have a very strong team. But we are going to have to go through some difficulties until then,” said Dorival Júnior after the victory.
For its part, Argentina, with Lionel Messi playing the entire match on a flooded playing field at the Monumental de Maturín stadium, managed to save a draw against Venezuela.
The world champion opened the scoring through Nicolás Otamendi in the 13th minute, but the historic Vinotinto scorer Salomón Rondón tied it in the 65th with a beautiful header.
“There is only one reading: there were no conditions to play today at least. That is clear,” said Albiceleste coach Lionel Scaloni.
Argentina has 19 points and minimized damage from a match in which it had considerable losses, such as goalkeeper Emiliano ‘Dibu’ Martínez and defender Cristian ‘Cuti’ Romero.
Venezuela with 11 units is seventh, since it grants the possibility of a playoff with a team from another confederation. An uncomfortable situation that calls into question Vinotinto’s dream of going to its first World Cup.
Colombia was the new victim of a Bolivia that has become practically invincible in the 4,150 meters above sea level of El Alto.
Óscar Villegas’ team took the three points with a great goal from midfielder Miguel Terceros at 58 minutes.
Ecuador failed in its attempt to surprise Gustavo Alfaro, its former coach who earned a goalless draw against Paraguay. Those led by Argentine Sebastián Beccacece tried to break the strong Guaraní defense but lacked ideas to achieve it.
The ninth date will be completed on Friday with the match in Lima between last-place Peru (3 points) against Uruguay (15 points, third) in a state of boiling over due to the unexpected criticism of its historic scorer, Luis Suárez, against coach Marcelo Bielsa .
