Argentina held by Venezuela, Brazil clinches last-minute victory over Chile in 2026 World Cup qualifiers

Despite a valiant effort from Venezuela in front of their home crowd, it was veteran striker Salomon Rondon who provided the breakthrough in the second half with a superb header from Yeferson Soteldo's cross, beating Argentina goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli. Although Argentina dropped points, the 2022 World Cup champions are still on track for a spot in the 2026 finals, which will be held in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

With the tournament expanded to 48 teams, the top six finishers in South America's 10-team round-robin qualifying competition will earn a ticket to the finals. Argentina lead the standings with 19 points from nine games, three points clear of second-placed Colombia, who suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to Bolivia in other qualifying action on Thursday.

Yet while Argentina look poised to qualify comfortably, rivals Brazil continue to make hard work of their qualifying campaign.

Chile, who are one place off the bottom of the standings, rocked Brazil after just two minutes when veteran striker Eduardo Vargas steered a looping header over Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson to make it 1-0.

But Brazil drew level in first-half stoppage time after Savinho worked himself into space before crossing for Botafogo forward Igor Jesus to head home.

The match looked destined to finish in a draw until the 89th minute, when Brazil substitute Luiz Henrique arrowed in a low shot from the edge of the area to make it 2-1.

The win moves Brazil into fourth place in the standings with 13 points from nine games, six points adrift from leaders Brazil.

Also read: Greece stun England in Nations League, Italy vs Belgium ends in 2-2 stalemate

Elsewhere Thursday, Bolivia boosted their hopes of a first World Cup appearance since 1994 with their gutsy 1-0 win over Colombia in a game played in the thin air of El Alto, which is situated at around 4,150m (13,600 feet) above sea level. A superb individual goal from Miguel Terceros handed the Bolivians their fourth victory of qualifying and vaulted them up into the automatic qualification positions.

Bolivia's fortunes have taken a dramatic upturn since the team started playing qualifiers in El Alto, which is just over 500m higher than the Bolivians' usual home venue of the Estadio Hernando Siles in nearby La Paz.

Bolivia opted to move fixtures to El Alto after losing two out of their opening three home qualifiers in La Paz last year.

The move has paid off, with Thursday's 1-0 win coming after a 4-0 rout of Venezuela at the same venue in September.

After claiming a shock 2-1 win away to Chile last month, Bolivia are now sitting in sixth place in the South American standings with 12 points from nine games.

Terceros's winning goal arrived in the 58th minute, with the 20-year-old winger who plays for Brazilian club Santos cutting in from the right flank, shimmying past Colombian defenders Jhon Lucumi and Kevin Castano and unleashing a left-footed thunderbolt that flew into the top corner.

Bolivia are level on points with Ecuador, who finished the day in fifth place in the table after a 0-0 draw with Paraguay in Quito.

Disclaimer: This story has been published from a news agency feed with minimal edits to adhere to web's style guide. The headline may have been changed to better reflect the content of the story or to make it more suitable for web audience.