With a confirmation and a surprise, the matches for the third date of the South American qualifiers towards the 2026 World Cup were held.
Let us remember that with the modifications made to the regulations starting with this edition, South America will qualify six teams directly instead of the four it had until the World Cup in Qatar.
Argentina missed several scoring opportunities but still managed to beat Paraguay by the slightest difference.
The surprise came from Brazil, who as a local team only managed to tie with Venezuela.
Argentina, without pushing itself to the limit this Thursday, extended for the third day its 100% performance in the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup and with 9 points it is already looking in the rearview mirror at Brazil, which tied at home and has 7, at Colombia (5) , Uruguay, Chile and Venezuela(4).
Ecuador, which began the qualifying rounds with a negative balance of 3, has righted its course with victories in the last two days (3) and is ahead of two losers on the day: Paraguay and Peru (1).
Mired in complete depression, Bolivia lies at the bottom of the classification, which today suffered its second defeat against its disappointed fans at the feared altitude of La Paz, the third in the tournament.
Colombia forgives and Uruguay equalizes.
In a two-sided match, Uruguay drew Colombia 2-2 in Barranquilla.
When the light blue dominated, Colombia went ahead with a goal from James. And one minute into the second half Uruguay equalized with Mathías Olivera, who had just entered. Then the coffee team went 2-1 with a goal from Mateus Uribe.
But the local waste came against a Uruguay played for the tie. Luis Díaz had a one-on-one with goalkeeper Sebastián Mele and threw it over, James crashed the ball into the post and a shot by Jhon Arias also hit the horizontal.
And when it seemed that Colombia was going to pass them by, Marcelo Bielsa's team took on a new lease of life and won its prize. Camilo Vargas, who had yellow, fouled Maximiliano Araújo in the area. Red for the goalkeeper. Álvaro Montero entered the goal and Darwin Núñez without hesitation scored a penalty to make it 2-2 in the 90th.
Victory by the minimum, Otamendi gives victory to Argentina.
ith a goal after 3 minutes by Nicolás Otamendi, the Argentina team defeated Paraguay 1-0 and achieved its third victory in a row in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
The albiceleste has gone eight games in a row without conceding a goal at home in the qualifiers and was one away from equaling Brazil's record in this tournament between 2016 and 2021.
Argentina's captain, Lionel Messi , entered the field of play in the 53rd minute for Julián Álvarez and had two balls hit the posts. The first of them could have been his first Olympic goal and the second in the 90th minute when he took a free kick.
While those led by Lionel Scaloni are marching with a perfect pace and nine points, Argentine Daniel Garnero's red-and-white team is not raising its head, accumulating one point and has only scored in one of its last 12 qualifying matches.
Ecuador triumph. Height no longer scares anyone
Ecuador showed this Thursday that the 3,650 meters of altitude of La Paz, which used to be the biggest fear of Bolivia's rivals, is just a myth. La Tri defeated La Verde with a 1-2 in the last breath that left the Bolivians alone in the last place in the 2026 World Cup qualification.
The opening of the scoring came in the 45th minute when Kendry Páez finished with his left foot from the center of the area after a pass from Moisés Caicedo.
Bolivia tied in the 83rd minute thanks to a shot by Rodrigo Ramallo who took advantage of the pass from his teammate Henry Vaca, and when equality seemed a fact, the Ecuadorian Kevin Rodríguez scored from the right, scored the winning goal in La Paz and He gave the first three points to those led by the Spanish Félix Sánchez, which places them in seventh place and condemns Gustavo Costas's team to last place alone.
Eduardo Berizzo convinces, Chile asserts its locality and leaves Peru second to last.
Chile, led by Argentine Eduardo Berizzo, achieved its first victory against Peru in the so-called Pacific Classic, which placed La Roja fifth in the qualifying table and sank Peru into penultimate place with one point, only above Bolivia, which It still doesn't add units.
In the 74th minute Diego Valdés scored the opening score after a header from Erick Pulgar and in the 90th minute + 1 the Peruvian Marcos López scored the final 2-0 on his own goal, leaving those led by Juan Máximo Reynoso in an uncomfortable position on the table.
Bello starts Venezuela's second draw against Brazil.
The canarinha entered the Arena Pantanal stadium in the city of Cuiabá today under suspicion, and came out booed by the little more than 40,000 spectators due to their dense play, which gives results but does not completely convince, and the bicycle goal of the striker of the Mexican Mazatlán Eduard Bello.
It was the 85th minute and for Neymar and company the mission became almost impossible, since the Venezuelan team has proven to be a specialist in defending.
The locals went ahead with a header goal from Gabriel Magalhaes, the English Arsenal centre-back's first in just three games with the veredeamarelo team.
Today was Venezuela's second draw with Brazil in 19 games played in the history of the qualifiers. The first was in 2009, when they scored 0-0 in Campo Grande. The other 17 were won by Canarinha.
Source images: Twitter FIFA World Cup 2026.