Neymar scored a hat-trick to lead Brazil to victory over Peru (4-2) in the South American qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
With this victory, Brazil topped the South American qualifiers with six points from two matches, on goal difference, than Argentina, who beat Bolivia 2-1.
Paris St Germain striker Neymar became the second best scorer in the history of the Brazilian national team, behind Pele (77 goals) with 64 goals, beating Ronaldo with two goals.
André Carrillo, the Peruvian player, scored his third goal in two matches to put the hosts in the lead in the sixth minute with a good shot from outside the penalty area, but Neymar equalized with a penalty kick in the 28th minute.
Peru returned to the lead again in the 60th minute, when Renato Tapia’s shot from 25 meters hit Prodrigo Caio and settled into the net, before Richarlison equalized for Brazil five minutes later.
Neymar put Brazil ahead with another penalty seven minutes before the end, and after Peru’s Carlos Zambrano was sent off, the Paris Saint-Germain striker scored his 64th international goal in injury time.
Messi leads Argentina to decode Bolivia
And the Argentine national team broke the “La Paz” knot, and scored its first victory over the Bolivian national team in its own home 15 years ago, and defeated it (2-1).
Despite the lackluster performance of the Argentine Tango, the team achieved its second successive victory in the qualifiers and raised its tally to 6 points, to temporarily lead the qualifying table until the end of the remaining matches of this round.
The first half of the match ended with a 1-1 draw, as the Bolivian team scored with a goal by Marcelo Martins Moreno in the 24th minute, and Lautaro Martinez tied for the Argentine team in the 45th minute.
In the second half, Lautaro Martinez created the winning goal for Tango, using Messi’s pass, and in turn passing it to his substitute teammate Joaquin Correa, who scored the goal in the 79th minute.
With this, Messi won his first victory over the Bolivian national team in the capital, La Paz, to break the knot that befell him with the Argentine national team in the capital of Bolivia.
The last previous victory of the Argentine national team over its Bolivian counterpart in La Paz, when they beat them 2-1 on March 26, 2005, was 3 months before the start of Messi’s international career with Tango.
Since achieving this victory, the two teams have met 3 times in La Paz, with World Cup qualifiers, in which the Argentine national team lost twice and the two teams tied in one match.
The Bolivian national team almost opened the scoring in the sixth minute, following an organized attack and a cross by Saul Torres Rojas from the right, and Marcelo Martins met it with a header that went outside the goal.
Argentina responded with a shot by Leandro Paredes from a long distance in the ninth minute, but the ball passed like an arrow next to the post to the right of the goalkeeper.
And fortune struck the Bolivian national team in more than one opportunity, as the team failed to take advantage of its relative advantage over its Argentine guest, who seemed far from the expected level.
The Bolivian national team’s offensive attempts resulted in a goal in the 24th minute, with a header from Marcelo Martins Moreno.
The goal came after an organized attack and a cross by Alejandro Shumakero from the left, and Martinez met it with a header that put the ball in the net.
And missed the Argentine attempts, any danger except for the ball, which was shot by Paredes strong from outside the penalty area in the 40th minute, but it rebounded off the post.
Contrary to expectations given the lackluster performance of the Tango, the equalizer for the Argentine national team came with a wonderful effort by Lautaro Martinez in the 45th minute.
The goal came after an attack from the tango, during which Lautaro pressed the Bolivian defense, passed Saul Torres, then passed the ball towards the center of the penalty area, and defender Carrasco tried to clear the ball, but his shot hit Lautaro Martinez, and rebounded into the goal, to be the equalizer for Tango before the end of the half. the first.
And the Argentine national team began the second half better, and tried to snatch a goal at the beginning of this half, but to no avail.
Over time, the Bolivian national team regained its balance and returned to creating some inconveniences for Tango.
Lionel Scaloni, the Argentine coach, resorted to a refreshing change in the 59th minute, with Joaquin Correa falling to replace Lucas Ocampos.
And Cesar Farias, the Bolivian coach, made two changes in the 65th minute, with Boris Cepedes and Bruno Miranda going in place of Raul Castro and Shumakero.
Tango had a chance to hit the net in the 75th minute, after a quick attack by the team and a pass from Messi to Lautaro, who advanced the ball into the penalty area and shot it strong, but the goalkeeper brilliantly removed it.
The Argentine national team renewed the attempt in the 79th minute, with an organized attack that resulted in the lead goal, signed by substitute Joaquin Correa.
The goal came after a pass from Messi to Lautaro Martinez, who in turn passed it to Korea, and the latter kicked it hard into the net.
The referee suspended the match for about two minutes in order to confirm the correctness of the goal through the video assistant referee system, in light of doubts about the infiltration of Lautaro, before the referee announced the correctness of the goal, to end the match with the victory of Tango.
A strong blow to Uruguay
The Ecuadorian national team quickly regained its balance in the qualifiers, and dealt a strong blow to its guest, Uruguay, by defeating it (4-2).
The Ecuadorian national team, which lost to Argentina (0-1) last Thursday in the first round of the qualifiers, scored their first 3 points in these qualifiers.
The Uruguay national team also stuck in the three points it scored in the (2-1) victory over Chile in the first round.
Ecuador won the first half with two clean goals scored by Moises Caicedo and Michael Estrada in the 15th and fourth minutes of stoppage time for this half.
In the second half, Estrada and Gonzalo Plata added two more goals for Ecuador in the 52nd and 75th minutes, before Luis Suarez scored two face-saving goals for the Uruguay national team from two penalties in the 84th and fifth minutes of stoppage time for the match.
Paraguay survives the ambush of Venezuela
The Paraguayan national team escaped from the ambush of its Venezuelan host and snatched a precious and late victory (1-0).
The Paraguayan national team raised its tally to four after it won in this match its first victory in these qualifiers after it drew 2-2 with Peru last Thursday at the opening of its qualifying career.
The Venezuela national team, led by Portuguese coach Jose Peseiro, has lost its second consecutive defeat in two matches so far in these qualifiers.
The first half of the match ended with a goalless draw, which remained in place in the second half, with the cancellation of a goal for the Venezuelan national team after returning to the video assistant referee (FAR) system.
In the 85th minute, Gaston Jimenez snatched the match-winning goal to give his team three precious points after Yangel Herrera missed a penalty kick for Venezuela in the fifth minute of stoppage time to keep the Venezuelan team without points.
Falcao saves Colombia
Veteran Colombian striker Radamel Falcao Garcia scored a goal in the lost time of the match to lead his country to clinch a valuable draw with its host Chile (2-2).
The Chilean team was on its way to claim its first three points in these qualifiers, as the team had previously lost (1-2) to Uruguay in the first round of the qualifiers, but Falcao prevented him from winning and gave Colombia a precious tie point to raise its score to four points after its victory over Venezuela (3-0) in the first round, while the Chilean team won one point from two games.
Colombia advanced with a very early goal scored by Jefferson Lerma in the seventh minute, and Chile responded with two goals scored by Vidal and Alexis Sanchez in the 38th minutes from a penalty kick and 42 to turn the table on the Colombian national team within five minutes before the end of the first half.
Falcao netted the deadly equalizer in the first minute of the match’s stoppage time.
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