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sports Diamars 12 OctOber 2021

Argentina wins; Brazil draws in World Cup qualifiers

(AP) — Lionel Messi was the Monumental Stadium range.
among the scorers as Ar- in Buenos Aires. Uruguay
gentina beat rival Uru- coach Óscar Tabárez selected “I think we are growing a
guay 3-0 on Sunday, hours a back-five tasked with stop- lot in the level of our game,”
after Brazil’s run of con- ping Argentina’s powerful Messi said. “We are now used
secutive wins in South offense and his team created to having the ball. Tonight
American World Cup most of the best early op- was a tough match and we
qualifying ended in a 0-0 portunities, with Luis Suárez had to win it. It all came out
draw with Colombia. hitting the post once. perfectly.”

Brazil leads the qualifying But a stroke of luck helped Argentina’s next challenge
competition with 28 points Argentina in the 38th min- will be against Peru. Uruguay
from nine wins and the draw, ute. Messi gave an overhead will travel to Brazil.
six points clear of second- pass in an attempt to assist
place Argentina after 10 Nico Gonzalez, who failed COLOMBIA 0, BRAZIL 0
matches. Brazil’s tally so far to touch it. But the ball gen- Brazil had the best opportu-
would have been enough to tly and unexpectedly passed nities of the encounter and was also well marked, some- the 64th.
qualify for all World Cups di- by goalkeeper Fernando forced Colombia goalkeeper times by two players.”
rectly since 2002. Muslera, into the right cor- David Ospina to make three Ecuador remains on 16 points
ner. key saves. The most impor- Tite tested out lineup or for- and last-place Venezuela has
Ecuador remains in third tant was in the 84th minute mation changes, as he prom- seven.
spot with 16 points, margin- Luck once more was on the in a close range finish by sub- ised. His defensive midfield
ally ahead of Uruguay based Argentinian side in the 44th. stitute Antony. was Fabinho and Fred for the Ninth-placed Bolivia frus-
on the number of victories. A series of passing mistakes first time. He also used wing- trated seventh position Peru
Colombia is in fifth place by both teams gave a clear Neymar returned to the ers Raphinha and Antony in with a 1-0 win at La Paz.
with 15 points. All three have opportunity to Lautaro Mar- Seleção after a suspension, the second half, following Ramiro Vaca scored the only
already played 11 matches. tinez on the edge of the box. but was off pace, missing sev- their impressive performanc- goal of the encounter in the
Lautaro failed to hit it cleanly, eral passes and running with es in the 3-1 win at Venezu- 85th. Peru remained on 11
The top four teams earn di- but it was enough to move apparent difficulty. He left ela. points and Bolivia improve to
rect entry to the World Cup the ball into the path of a Ro- the pitch immediately after nine points in the standings.
in Qatar next year. The fifth- drigo de Paul. the final whistle. Brazil coach Colombia’s next match will
place team can still qualify via Tite said in a news confer- also be at home against Ec- Eight-placed Chile beat sixth
an inter-continental playoff. The second half started with ence too much is expected uador. place Paraguay 2-0 to reach
Uruguay trying to charge up from his star player all of the 10 points in the standings and
All teams in South American front with substitutes Edin- time. Also on Sunday, third place maintain its chances of quali-
World Cup qualifiers will son Cavani and Darwin Nu- Ecuador lost 2-1 at Venezu- fying. Ben Breteton opened
play again on Thursday. ñez, but once again Argentina “He is an exceptional player ela. Enner Valencia opened the scoring in the 68th and
scored. Messi found de Paul because he makes exceptional the scoring for from the spot Mauricio Isla added a second
ARGENTINA 3, URU- on the right flank, and the plays, he does it exceptionally in the 37th, but Venezuela in the 72nd. Paraguay re-
GUAY 0 midfielder sent a low cross and not ordinarily,” Brazil’s turned its fortunes with goals mains in sixth place with 12
Messi’s team was prepar- into the penalty box. Lautaro coach said. “He is a special by Darwin Machis late in the points.
ing for a long, tense night at Martinez scored from close player, we know it. And he first half and Eduard Bello in

Cardinals use Hopkins, stellar defense to beat 49ers 17-10

(AP) — Zach Allen will enjoy his Arizona came in averaging 35 points “At a certain point,” the 285-pound The 49ers have lost three in a row.
postgame trip to Shake Shack af- per game, which led the NFL. This Allen said with a grin, “you want to
ter an exhausting, physical win time, it was the defense that deliv- go home and have some food.” Lance had an up-and-down first start,
over the San Francisco 49ers. He ered, stopping the Niners and rookie making some impressive plays with
and the rest of the Arizona Car- quarterback Trey Lance four times on DeAndre Hopkins hauled in a dif- his arm and feet. But San Francisco
dinals’ defense certainly deserve fourth down. ficult 9-yard touchdown catch with struggled in many of the biggest mo-
a burger or two. 5:13 remaining, hanging onto the ments, converting 1 of 5 chances on
Allen said the Cardinals’ defense was football despite tight defense from fourth down.
The Cardinals improved to 5-0 for ready to stop the 49ers as many times San Francisco’s Josh Norman. That
the first time since 1974, riding a stel- as needed, though he conceded it was gave the Cardinals a 17-7 lead, Lance finished 15 of 29 for 192 yards
lar defensive performance to a 17-10 nice to watch quarterback Kyler Mur- enough of a cushion to close out the and one interception. He also led
victory over the Niners on Sunday. ray and the offense close it out with a win. the team with 89 yards rushing. San
couple first downs. Francisco outgained Arizona 338
“I take them any way we can get yards to 304.
them,” Cardinals coach Kliff Kings-
bury said. “Especially division wins. The Cardinals settled for a 10-0 half-
(San Francisco’s) a great team, great time lead after Matt Prater missed a
culture, they play so hard and play 61-yard field goal attempt as time ex-
together and have great energy. So if pired. The 49ers (2-3) did a good job
you can beat them, that’s a great Sun- of slowing Arizona’s offense, which
day.” has thrived with Kingsbury, Murray
and Hopkins.
Murray completed 22 of 31 passes for
239 yards. Hopkins caught six passes The 49ers finally broke through late
for 87 yards — including a 30-yard in the third quarter when Deebo
catch that set up his big touchdown Samuel ran 13 yards for a touchdown,
reception — but said the major credit cutting the deficit to 10-7. Samuel
goes to the defense with the fourth- came in as the NFL’s leading receiver
down stops. and also proved a capable runner, tak-
ing the pitch from Lance and evading
“That’s championship football,” several Cardinals on the way to the
Hopkins said. end zone.