Year two of the South American qualifiers World Cup 2026 closed this Tuesday with a solid leader with 25 points, Argentinaand five teams, with just three points difference between the second, Uruguay with 20, and the sixth, Paraguay With 17, they block the way to classification.
For its part, at the bottom, Bolivia (13), who lost a 2-2 draw against Paraguay at its headquarters in El Alto, and Venezuela (12), who fell in Santiago before Chili 4-2, they are fighting for seventh place that entitles them to the play-offs, while Chile (9) and Peru (7) close the classification almost without hope.
This is the classification of the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.
1-1. Uruguay recovers its tone and fades Brazil
A whip from Gerson nullified a great goal by Federico Valverde scored seven minutes earlier to seal a 1-1 draw in Salvador that consolidated Uruguay in second place in the qualifying rounds and relegated Brazil to fifth.
With 20 points out of a possible 36, the team led by Marcelo Bielsa was left in the shadow of Argentina, which is alone with 25, and Brazil, which wasted the possibility of reaching second place, lost ground until falling to fifth with 18, one less than the 19 from Ecuador and Colombia, third and fourth in the league.
La Celeste scared away a streak of disappointing results between Friday and Tuesday by defeating Colombia in Montevideo and drawing a draw this Tuesday at home, while Brazil suffered again with its ghosts by drawing 1-1 with Venezuela and this day at home .
4-2. Chile and Gareca breathe and Vinotinto stagnates
La Roja woke up after eight dates without winning, precisely against Venezuela, with which their debacle began in these qualifying rounds and who beat them 3-0 on the fourth date on October 17, 2023, but whom they beat this Tuesday by 4 -2 to get out of the pit and be four points away from the play-off spot, which is in the hands of Bolivia with 13 points.
And the Vinotinto led by Fernando Batista now has eight days without winning, which is out of the 2026 World Cup qualification positions and closes the year eighth with 12 units.
Ricardo Gareca’s first victory of the cycle with Chile was achieved with a double from Lucas Cepeda, a goal from Eduardo Vargas and an own goal from Tomás Rincón, after Jefferson Savarino and Rubén Ramírez twice put Venezuela ahead in the marker.
1-0. Argentina closer to the 2026 World Cup, Peru far away
Argentina even wins by playing badly. It was not his best game in La Bombonera, he did not beat a Peru that stopped hard and with a very populated defensive block and it was not, this Tuesday, the best performance of the captain, Lionel Messi.
What the world champion did achieve was to set foot in the 2026 World Cup, with the 25 points he reached today. With six dates left, those led by Lionel Scaloni surpassed the magic number of 24 units that qualifies for the World Cup, while their rival, a Peru that did not have a single shot on goal, has 7 points, is bottom and reduces its options for the 2026 World Cup.
In the next round, which will be played in March 2025, Argentina will visit Uruguay and Peru will host Bolivia.
Read also
0-1. Colombia 0 out of 6 and Ecuador celebrates 59 years later
Ecuador surprised Colombia in its fiefdom in Barranquilla, where it had not lost in these qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, and dealt it a hard blow to climb the rankings, from sixth to third place, and send Néstor Lorenzo’s team to fourth place. on a double date in which the coffee growers got zero points out of six.
Enner Valencia’s goal in the 7th minute and Hernán Galíndez’s saves in the first half were enough for a Tri team that played with 10 for 60 minutes to beat Colombia again in this tournament 59 years later, in the same city in the one they celebrated by the same score in 1965. In addition, Sebastián Beccacece’s team has accumulated five games without losing.
In March, on the thirteenth round, Colombia will visit Brazil and Ecuador will host Venezuela.
2-2. And Paraguay went to the mountain
The more than 4,000 meters of altitude of the municipality of Alto, where Venezuela succumbed 4-0 and Colombia 1-0, had been gaining fame as an elephant cemetery in the qualifying rounds until this Tuesday the Paraguay team, which five days ago did not He believes in no one who stands in front of him, he climbed to the top to get a point with a taste of triumph.
La Albirroja was twice at a disadvantage against a Bolivian team that conceded ten goals outside its territory in the two games it played: six from Argentina and four from Ecuador.
Paraguay, which extended its undefeated record to five days this Tuesday in coincidence with the arrival of Gustavo Alfaro to the bench, reached 17 points and was sixth in the table, one of those that give a direct place to the next World Cup. Bolivia now has 13 and balances in seventh, which gives the right to a play-off.
