World Cup 2018 South American Qualifiers: Tango misses a beat, Colombia jumps

(Baonghean.vn) - The 14th match of the 3rd qualifying round of the 2018 World Cup in South America, ifNeymar continues to excel with his teammates, but without Messi, Argentina falls out of the top 4.

Big surprise

At the Estadio Hernando Siles of the host Bolivia, Argentina was without superstar Lionel Messi due to a four-match suspension for insulting the referee. In fact, the “Albiceleste” still danced the Tango, dominating Bolivia throughout the 90 minutes. The Argentine players still had more possession of the ball, but lacked the creative, innovative passes to penetrate the Bolivian defense.

Despite their attack without scoring, the blue and white striped team paid the price with a 0-2 defeat. Juan Carlos Arce (31') and Marcelo Moreno (52') were the ones who scored for the home team. This defeat pushed Argentina down to 5th place, behind Chile, and coach Edgardo Bauza will have a headache finding a replacement for Lionel Messi in the next 3 matches. If they cannot do that, Argentina will be left out of the football festival in Russia.

In the important match, the midfield duo James Rodriguez (20') and Juan Cuadrado (34') scored early for Colombia to beat the home team Ecuador with a result of 2-0. The home team's center back Luis Caicedo received a second yellow card and left the field in the 61st minute, making Ecuador lose the chance to reverse the situation and fall down 1 place, to 6th in the rankings. This is the only host team in the 5 matches to lose the match and if Ecuador does not participate in the 2018 World Cup, Luis Caicedo will surely regret it forever.

Home team wins

After host Russia, Brazil is likely to be the second team in the world to win a ticket to the 2018 World Cup. At the moment, no team in South America can stop the yellow-green army.

It was expected that the Samba Dancers would win 3-0 against Paraguay to continue leading the South American World Cup 2018 qualifying standings. With an 11-point gap to the 5th-placed team, and with only 4 qualifying rounds left, they only need 1 more point to be considered to have a ticket to Russia for the 2018 World Cup.

If in the previous match Paulinho was the one who scored a hat-trick against Uruguay, in this match he played the role of "creator" and the midfielder playing for Guangzhou Evergrande had a wonderful double assist. Of the 3 goals scored by Philippe Coutinho, Neymar and Marcelo, Neymar and Marcelo created 2 super goals on the pitch.

Captain Neymar scored another great goal against Paraguay. Photo: Internet

Captain Neymar in high spirits ran more than 60m, starting from home through a series of Paraguayan players before drawing a high trajectory into the visitors' goal.

At home at Estadio Monumental David Arellano, host Chile easily defeated Venezuela 3-1 thanks to a brace from Esteban Paredes (7', 22') and a goal from Alexis Sanchez (5'). Sanchez would have had a brace if he had not missed a penalty kick in the 63rd minute.

The consolation goal for the visiting team Venezuela came from Salomon Rondon (63') when the match was already decided. Importantly, with the home win and Argentina's stumble, Chile has again entered the top 4, full of hope for a ticket to Russia.

Uruguay, who are currently second in the standings and still reeling from a 4-1 defeat to Brazil, continued to disappoint with a 2-1 defeat to hosts Peru. Immediately after returning from suspension, Luis Suarez put Uruguay ahead, but their defensive errors were costly.

Jose Paolo Guerrero and Edison Flores scored to help host Peru come back to win 2-1. Not only did Uruguay lose the match, they also lost a man when Jonathan Urretaviscaya received a second yellow card in the 76th minute. This result caused Uruguay to drop to 3rd place, behind Colombia with 1 point less.

In the South American region, except for Brazil, who are too strong and have played consistently, they have quickly separated from the group. The positions from 2nd place Colombia to 6th place Ecuador are only 4 points apart, making the battle for the remaining 3 tickets to Russia increasingly dramatic. South American players, who play spontaneously, on a day of sublimation, teams at the bottom of the rankings like Bolivia can still defeat the giant Argentina.

South American football is always unpredictable!

AT