Argentina and Brazil undergo jolts in CONMEBOL World Cup qualifiers

Rodriguez’s penalty sealed the deal for Colombia
| Picture Credit score: AP

World champion Argentina suffered its second defeat in CONMEBOL qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup with a James Rodriguez penalty condemning it to a 1-2 loss to Colombia on Tuesday whereas a lacklustre Brazil went all the way down to Paraguay 0-1 in Asuncion.

The victory was candy revenge for a Colombia group which had misplaced to Argentina in July’s last of the Copa America.

Colombia took the lead within the twenty fifth minute when Rodriguez chipped a cross from a brief nook to the again publish the place Yerson Mosquera rose to move residence.

With Rodriguez prompting in midfield and Luis Diaz a risk together with his tempo down the flanks, Colombia was nicely on prime within the opening half towards a sluggish Argentina, with out the injured Lionel Messi.

However three minutes after the interval, the customer drew stage when a misplaced go from Rodriguez was pounced upon by Nicolas Gonzalez, who raced away, held off Mosquera and slotted previous the advancing Colombia ’keeper Camilo Vargas.

Twelve minutes later, although, Colombia restored its lead in controversial trend.

Daniel Munoz went down after a lunging problem from Nicolas Otamendi and after a number of minutes, the referee was despatched to the VAR monitor and awarded a penalty. Rodriguez stepped as much as the spot, towards penalty specialist Emiliano Martinez and confidently slotted residence.

Gomez strikes

It was a first-half purpose by Diego Gomez that gave Paraguay a much-deserved win towards the five-time world champion.

Dorival Jr’s group is fifth in South American qualifying for the 2026 World Cup with 10 factors, forward of Venezuela on purpose distinction. Brazil didn’t report a shot on the right track within the first half and fell behind within the twentieth minute when Gomez rifled residence from the sting of the field.

The outcomes: Colombia 2 (Mosquera 25, Rodriguez 60-pen) bt Argentina 1 (Gonzalez 48); Ecuador 1 (Valencia 54) bt Peru 0.

Chile 1 (Vargas 39) misplaced to Bolivia 2 (lgaranaz 13, Terceros 45+1); Venezuela 0 drew with Uruguay 0; Paraguay 1 (Gomez 20) bt Brazil 0.