Argentina was held to a draw of 1-1 by Venezuela upon Lionel Messi’s return, while Brazil put their 2026 World Cup qualification campaign on track after a last-gasp victory against Chile on Thursday.
After his free kick, Messi looked to have set the world champions in motion after Nicolas Otamendi scored the opening goal in the 13th minute in Maturin, Venezuela.
Salomon Ronaldo, a veteran striker from Venezuela, met Yeferson's Soteldo cross with a head that flew by Argentina goalkeeper Geronimo Roulli midway through second half.
The 2022 World Cup winner Argentina remains firmly on track to qualify for the 2026 Finals which will be held in the United States of America, Canada, and Mexico.
The tournament has been expanded to 48 teams. The top six finishers of the 10-team South American round-robin qualification competition will receive a ticket to finals.
Argentina leads the standings after nine matches with 19 points. This is three points ahead of Colombia in second place, which suffered a shocking 1-0 loss to Bolivia on Thursday.
Brazil continues to struggle in their qualification campaign, despite Argentina's apparent ease of qualification.
After just two minutes, Chile, one place below the bottom of the table, stunned Brazil when veteran striker Eduardo Vargas looped a header over Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson, making it 1-0.
Brazil equalized in the first-half extra time when Savinho, who had worked his way into space and crossed for Botafogo's Igor Jesus, headed home.
It looked like the match would end in a draw, until Luiz Henrique, the Brazilian substitute, arrowed a low shot into the goal from the outside of the box to make it 2-1.
Brazil is now in fourth place with 13 points after nine matches, six points behind the leaders.
Bolivian boost
Bolivia's 1-0 victory over Colombia, played in El Alto at 4,150m (13,600 feet) above the sea level, boosted their chances of making their first World Cup since 1994.
Miguel Terceros's superb goal gave the Bolivians a fourth win in qualifying, and boosted them into automatic qualification.
Bolivia's fortunes are on the rise since they started playing in El Alto. This is a stadium that's just 500m above their usual home ground, the Estadio Hernando Siles near La Paz.
Bolivia chose to play in El Alto this year after losing their first two home qualifiers at La Paz.
The move paid off as Thursday's 1-0 victory came after a 4-0 defeat of Venezuela in September at the same stadium.
Bolivia is now sixth in South American rankings with 12 points after a 2-1 victory away from Chile in last month's game.
Terceros scored the winning goal in the 58th minutes. The 20-year old winger, who plays for Brazilian side Santos, cut in from the right wing, shimmying by Colombian defenders Jhon Lucumi and Kevin Castano, and unleashing a thunderbolt left-footed that flew to the top corner.
Bolivia is level with Ecuador in points after the Ecuadorian team finished fifth in the table following a 0-0 tie with Paraguay at Quito.
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