Loss to Neymar’s Brazil leaves Luis Suarez’s Uruguay with fight to reach World Cup
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Over the course of the last week, South America’s World Cup qualification campaign packed in three rounds of matches — 15 in total — to move from the halfway mark to the stage when two thirds of the matches have been completed. The away side only managed a goal in three of those games: the two hosted by bottom-of-the-table Venezuela and the consolation goal managed by Uruguay in their 4-1 defeat in Brazil.
Home advantage matters in South America with its vast distances, its temperature differences and local peculiarities such as altitude. It may have mattered even more over the last few days with fans returning to the stadiums. To have the slightest chance of making it to Qatar, Chile and Bolivia had to win in front of their own fans both on Sunday and in Thursday’s 12th round. Mission accomplished.
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At the extreme altitude of La Paz, Bolivia thrashed Paraguay 4-0 to draw level with them on points, level on goal difference and ahead of them in seventh place as a consequence of having more goals. Paraguay sacked coach Eduardo Berizzo soon after the final whistle.
One point ahead of Bolivia and Paraguay are Chile, who maintained their chances with a 3-0 win against Venezuela. The Ben Brereton Diaz show continued with a wonderfully taken third goal after two from midfielder Erik Pulgar had given Chile a first-half lead. Chile are now just three points off the qualification positions. They are not competing against Brazil or Argentina, who are over the hills and far away. Their battle now is with Ecuador, who have 17 points, and Colombia and Uruguay, who have 16.
The problem for Uruguay is that next month’s games are tough: they host Argentina, who took them apart on Sunday, and then face the dreaded trip to La Paz to take on Bolivia. Uruguay find themselves down in the dogfight. The first half-hour of this…
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Source : espn
