Home ›› 12 Oct 2021 ›› Sport
Lionel Messi opened the scoring as Argentina thumped neighbors Uruguay 3-0 in an entertaining World Cup qualifier on Sunday.
Goals from Rodrigo De Paul and Lautaro Martinez rounded off a successful night for Lionel Scaloni’s team in Buenos Aires as they maintained their unbeaten start to the qualification campaign and closed the gap at the top of the single South American table to six points behind Brazil, who drew 0-0 with Colombia.
“We played a great match, I think we’re improving a lot,” said Messi. “It was a tough match and we had to win it. Uruguay sit back and are dangerous. Once we scored the first goal, we started to find spaces and many appeared.”
Messi had a low shot from the D deflected inches past the post and then broke the deadlock in bizarre fashion.
His chip into the box with the outside of his left boot was missed by Nicolas Gonzalez, whose presence seemed to deceive Muslera, the goalkeeper also missing the ball as it nestled in the bottom corner.
Uruguay’s nerves were rattled and Argentina doubled their lead with another scrapy goal. Messi’s pass was deflected into the path of Martinez whose miss-kick fell kindly for De Paul to stroke home. Martinez secured the win on 62 minutes when left unmarked at the back post to tap in De Paul’s cross.
Neymar fails to inspire Brazil
The returning Neymar could not inspire Brazil to victory as hosts Colombia ended their perfect start to the qualification campaign in Barraquilla.
The Selecao had won their first nine qualifiers, scoring 22 goals to lead the table by eight points before kick-off.
Coach Tite’s side are still almost certain to qualify for next year’s finals in Qatar as they maintain a 13-point lead over fifth-placed Colombia.
Raphinha almost fashioned a winner for Brazil when he picked out Antony with a perfect in-swinging delivery, only for Ospina to make a brilliant reaction save from point-blank range.
