🌎 Paraguay stun Argentina; Vini Jr. penalty miss haunts Brazil

CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifying continues Thursday evening with a trio of games across South America.

Here is what has gone down so far.

Paraguay 2-1 Argentina

Scorers: Sanabria 19′, Alderete 48′ ; Martínez 11′

Paraguay erased an early deficit to stun Argentina at home in World Cup Qualifying.

Argentina dominated the ball from the opening whistle, and it did not take long for them to find the opener as a reward.

While a Lautaro Martínez goal on the break was originally chalked off for offsides in the buildup, a VAR review overturned the decision to see the visitors take an early lead.

But their advantage did not last long, as a superb Antonio Sanabria strike pulled the hosts level before the 20 minute mark.

After the break, Argentina continued to control the possession, but they were caught out once again when Omar Alderete headed home from a set-pice just minutes after the restart.

The reigning world champions pushed to pull level, bringing on the likes of Alejandro Garnacho and Taty Castellanos to shake things up in attack, but Paraguay stood tall in the face of the pressure to hold on for a stunning result.

Venezuela 1-1 Brazil

Scorers: Segovia 46′ ; Raphinha 43′

A second-half Vinicius Junior penalty miss saw Venezuela hold on to share the points with Brazil in Monagas.

The two teams traded chances in the opening half of play, and were it not for some heroic defending and goalkeeping it could have been a high-scoring affair.

But it took until the dying minutes of the half for the deadlock to broken, and it was done in style when Raphinha kissed a free-kick off the post and in before doing the Neymar celebration while donning his number 10 shirt.

The visitors’ lead would not last long however, as Telasco Segovia fired home the leveller with aplomb in just three minutes into the second interval.

Brazil had the chance to find the winner past the hour mark when Vinicius Junior was taken down in the box, but the Real Madrid saw his poor penalty attempt saved.

While Venezuela may have had plans to find a late winner, their efforts were undone when Alexander González was sent off in the dying minutes.

The shared points sees Brazil move into third for now, while Venezuela remain in seventh.

Ecuador 4-0 Bolivia

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