An 89th-minute goal by substitute Luiz Henrique gave Brazil a 2-1 away win over Chile in a 2026 World Cup qualifying match.
The win meant under-pressure Brazil coach Dorival Jnior’s team will finish the ninth round of the round-robin competition in fourth place in South American qualifying.
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Earlier, Lionel Messi’s Argentina drew Venezuela 1-1 in a match that was delayed for 30 minutes due to a wet pitch at Monumental Stadium in the Venezuelan city of Maturin.
Argentina, which leads the 10-team competition, has 19 points after nine matches. Colombia, with 16 points, remains in second place after losing 1-0 at Bolivia. Uruguay is third with 15 points and has a chance to add more in a match against Peru on Friday. Brazil has 13 points.
Brazil struggled to create clear chances, but managed to equalize in added time with a header by its new striker, Igor Jesus, who came in as a replacement for injured Vinicius Jnior. The visitors kept most of the ball possession in the second half, but still failed to get clear chances.
In the final minutes, Henrique decided to take his chances from the edge of the box. The winning goal made several Chile players throw themselves to the ground in anguish.
Brazil’s next match will be against Peru in Brasilia. Chile will travel to Colombia.
This shirt means a lot. It is a great feeling for us to wear it. We know what is happening, but we wanted to change it,” said Henrique. Our fans can be sure we will fight always for this team. We are the only five-time World Cup champions, we will play with passion.”
Dorival Jnior said that his team will continue to have ups and downs as the coach tries out new players.
We will have a very strong team two years from now, Jnior said, in a reference for the next World Cup. But it is only in the dictionary that success comes before work.
Salomn Rondn equalized in the 65th minute with a header for the only South American team that has yet to play in a World Cup.
The pitch did not help us do what we wanted to do,” said Messi, who returned to the national team after missing the two previous rounds of South American qualifying due to ligament damage in his right ankle.
Venezuela defender Jon Aramburu said his team wanted a win to show its ambition.
The rain affected the match, we couldn’t play well, he said. We drew against a team that everyone knows of its potential. But this team is here to beat them, to compete.
Miguel Terceros, also known as Miguelito, scored the winning goal for Bolivia in the 58th minute with a powerful shot after dribbling through two defenders.
Bolivia had lost Hctor Cuellar to a straight red card in the 21st minute after a gruesome tackle that forced the substitution of striker Roger Martinez, but the team remained competitive until the end of the match in its high-altitude stadium.
We are a young team that wants to change history,” Terceros said. Now we will travel to Argentina thinking about winning.
Bolivia hasn’t qualified for a World Cup since the 1994 edition in the United States.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First Published: Oct 11 2024 | 2:11 PM IST
