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The brutal qualification process for the CONMEBOL World Cup began on Thursday night with a trio of matches and goals from ghosts from many past qualifiers.
Lionel Messi converted a penalty and became the first Argentine to appear in five different qualifying cycles for the World Cup, while Luis Suárez of Uruguay scored in a victory over Alexis Sánchez and Chile.
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There was also a wild second half in Peru’s 2-2 draw in Paraguay. More on that below.
Each of the 10 nations of the South American confederation plays at home and away in a tough and unforgiving tournament that leaves five teams with no luck and a sixth that requires a tiebreaker between confederations to reach Qatar 2022.
Uruguay 2-1 Chile
Super substitute Maximiliano Gómez only needed six minutes to conjure up a majestic winner and give Uruguay a great qualifying start in the toughest match of the day.
Luis Suárez’s penalty before the break was answered by Alexis Sánchez after the break.
Gomez came in for LAFC’s Brian Rodriguez, who had taken the Suarez penalty, in the 87th minute and pulled the ball out from under him to hit this hammer.
Chile was also somehow deprived of a penalty when VAR failed to alter a fairly obvious handball.
Regardless, this Gomez strike is unpleasant.
Gooooooooool #Uruguay 🇺🇾‼ ️‼ ️
Maxi Gómez wins late and hands Uruguay the 3 points in injury time‼ ️#URUCHI #Elimination pic.twitter.com/Na7P48BiHf
– Jose Mesa Corrales (@JmesaSports) October 9, 2020
Paraguay 2-2 Peru
A goalless first half gave way to chaos. The chaos saw former Watford player Andre Carrillo match a pair of goals around a double from San Lorenzo’s Ángel Romero.
Carrillo put Peru ahead at 52 and the lead lasted 14 minutes, when Alberto Espinola prepared Romero for two goals in a quarter of an hour.
But Saint-Etienne man Miguel Trauco signaled Carrillo for a second goal with minutes left, the Al-Hilal winger registering his first goals for Peru since a 2018 World Cup group stage match against Australia.
Miguel Almirón, from Newcastle, limped off after 90 minutes; Magpies supporters will be on the lookout for injury news on Friday.
Argentina 1-0 Ecuador
Lionel Messi became the first Argentine to play in five qualifying cycles for the World Cup and celebrated with an early penalty.
Messi’s 71st goal improves his record for Argentina and reaches his 138th international, nine less than the record of his former club and teammate Javier Mascherano. He has also registered 47 assists.
Forty-six of those matches were in qualifying for the World Cup, where Messi has 22 goals and 11 assists.
Argentina goal!
Lionel Messi opens the scoring.
Argentina 1 × 0 Ecuador pic.twitter.com/kXWyxh7yhI
– Fut TT (@OficialFutTT) October 9, 2020
Upcoming qualifiers for the CONMEBOL World Cup
Friday
Colombia v Venezuela
Brazil in Bolivia
Tuesday
Bolivia in Argentina
Ecuador v Uruguay
Venezuela v Paraguay
Peru v Brazil
Chile v Colombia
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