[ad_1]
Brazil is the first South American team to qualify for the Qatar World Cup, with several games in hand and more than a year to go before the Qatari tournament begins.
Lucas Paqueta scored Brazil’s only goal in the 72nd minute with a 1-0 win over Colombia, and Selecao took an 18-point lead over Chile in fourth place, adding only 15 points from their remaining five games.
Sixth-placed Uruguay can still score 34 points in Brazil, but in the final round of the standings they will face Chile, which makes it mathematically impossible for both of them to overtake the leader.
The top four teams in South America get direct access to the World Cup.
“It’s the result of the great work we did back then,” Paquetá said after the Sao Paulo match, which offered both teams few opportunities.
“Luckily I cried (after scoring) in the national team and in my Lyon in my club at the moment. This came with great joy, joy for this job well done,” added Paqueta.
World Cup qualifiers: worries escalate for England’s Southgate ahead of Albania clashes
Marquinhos scored his goal after finding Neymar in the middle of the Colombian defense.
Neymar quickly passed to Paquetá, who overtook goalkeeper David Ospina with a low cross shot that ended in the right corner of the Colombian goal. The match was one of the few chances created by Brazil.
Brazil sealed their standings by coaching Tite for their 50th win, with 12 draws and five defeats. Tite took on Brazil in the middle of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Also on Thursday, in third place, Ecuador beat Venezuela last 1-0 with a goal from Piero Hincapie, and Chile took a 1-0 victory over Paraguay thanks to an own goal by Antony Silva after a corner.
Peru and Bolivia will face off on Thursday. Uruguay will host Argentina on Friday.
Brazil has 11 wins in 12 games; his strange match with second-placed Argentina in September was interrupted after seven minutes of play by authorities for violating COVID-19 protocols. FIFA has not yet decided whether it will be repeated.
It follows its two main rivals in Ecuador (20 points) in the South American playoffs, tied with Chile, Colombia and Uruguay with 16 points. The Chileans are making progress on the goal difference for now.
The fifth-ranked South American qualifier has entered a cross-continent qualifier in Qatar.
[ad_2]
Source link
