Two goals before half-time, one of them from Lionel Messi’s unusually lucky counter, helped Argentina on their way to an easy 3-0 win over Uruguay in a World Cup qualifier here on Sunday.
Messi drove 35 meters into the field eight minutes before the break, but it missed both striker Nicolas González and goalkeeper Fernando Muslera and somehow got into the net.
Six minutes later Lautaro Martínez missed a chance at the edge of the box but the loose ball fell in the way of Rodrigo de Paul, who made no mistake.
Martinez converted a low cross from de Paul in the second half in 17 minutes.
perfect game
Messi said, ‘We played a great game. “Everything worked perfectly.”
“Uruguay waits for you and they pose a threat. Once we got the first target we started getting places and the targets came out.”
The combined victory, combined with Brazil’s 0–0 draw in Colombia earlier in the day, reduced the gap between Brazil’s leader and second-placed Argentina to six points at the top of the 10-team South American qualifying group.
The stalemate also ended Brazil’s nine-match winning run.
In the CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers, Anibal Godoy’s 54th-minute goal gave hosts Panama a historic 1-0 win to end the United States’ unbeaten run.
Result:
South America: Bolivia 1 (R. Vaca 82) Bt Peru 0; Venezuela 2 (Match 45+1, bello 64) bt Ecuador 1 (Valencia 37-pen); Colombia 0 Drawn with Brazil 0; Argentina 3 (Messi 38, de Paul 44, Martinez 62) bt Uruguay 0; Chile 2 (Brereton 68, Isla 72) bt Paraguay 0.
CONCACAF: Jamaica 0 drew with Canada 0; Costa Rica 2 (Ruiz 52, Borges 58-pen) bt El Salvador 1 (Henriquez 12); Panama 1 (Godoy 54) bt United States 0; Mexico 3 (Cordova 18, Funes Mori 76, Lozano 86) bt Honduras 0.
Africa: Mauritania 0 draw with Tunisia; Zambia 1 (Sakala 65) drew with Equatorial Guinea 1 (Bikoro 82); Cape Verde 1 (Mendes 90) bt Liberia 0; Central African Republic 0 lost to Nigeria 2 (Balogun 29, Osimhen 45+1); Uganda 1 (Bio 22) bt Rwanda 0; Kenya 0 lost to Mali 1 (Con 55); Madagascar 1 (Rakotoharimala 2) bt Democratic Republic of the Congo 0; Benin 0 lost to Tanzania 1 (Masuwa 6).
.