Argentina send Venezuela packing; Brazil are perfect

Montevideo, Sept. 3: Argentina maintained their unbeaten start to their World Cup qualifying campaign, cruising to a 3-1 victory at 10-man Venezuela on Thursday night.

But Brazil continued their perfect start to qualifying with a seventh win out of seven as Everton Ribeiro scored the only goal in a 1-0 away victory over Chile.

Lautaro Martinez opened the scoring after Venezuela had been reduced to 10 men by Luis Adrian Martinez’s red card for a reckless challenge on Messi. Argentina did not impress but the extra man told in the final quarter when substitutes

Joaquin Correa and Angel Correa broke through.

Argentina travel to Brazil on Sunday in a repeat of July’s Copa America final.

Depleted Brazil were second best for much of their trip to Santiago having seen 11 players prevented from joining the squad by their clubs due to Coronavirus restrictions.

Key English based players Alisson of Liverpool, Chelsea’s Thiago Silva and Manchester City’s Gabriel Jesus were missing but crucially Neymar, who plays for Paris SaintGermain in France, was available.

And it was his shot on 64 minutes that Chile goalkeeper Claudio Bravo spilled into the path of Everton Ribeiro to nick the only goal of the game.

Ecuador left it late to cement their hold on third place in the standings before beating Paraguay 20 in Quito.

Uruguay were without their two star forwards, Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani but snatched a draw away to Peru.

Nahitan Nandez almost won it for Uruguay 20 seconds from time but his stunning volley clipped the outside of the post.

Fernando Saucedo equalised seven minutes from time for Bolivia in a

1-1 draw after Roger Martinez’s opener for Colombia on 69 minutes.

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