Messi's Argentina thrash Uruguay, Brazil lose 100% qualifying record
Published : Tuesday, 12 October, 2021 at 12:00 AM Count : 761
MONTEVIDEO, OCT 11: Lionel Messi opened the scoring as Argentina thumped neighbors Uruguay 3-0 in an entertaining World Cup qualifier on Sunday. Goals from Rodrigo De Paul and Lautaro Martinez rounded off a successful night for Lionel Scaloni's team in Buenos Aires as they maintained their unbeaten start to the qualification campaign and closed the gap at the top of the single South American table to six points behind Brazil, who drew 0-0 with Colombia. "We played a great match, I think we're improving a lot," said Messi. "It was a tough match and we had to win it. "Uruguay sit back and are dangerous. Once we scored the first goal we started to find spaces and many appeared." The first half was a classic end-to-end thriller with both sides hitting the woodwork before Argentina opened the scoring.
Uruguay's Luis Suarez looked lively early on and had three gilt-edged chances, all from the corner of the six yard box. Two, including an acrobatic volley, were parried by goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, while his third effort came back off the near post. For Argentina, Giovani Lo Celso skewed wide form 10 yards and Lautaro Martinez was narrowly unable to direct De Paul's cross on target. -AFP