Other Competitions
CONMEBOL Roundup: Almada the hero for ten-man Argentina
While there's plenty of football still to come this summer, FIFA's June international window concluded with the latest round of CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying and Ligue 1's stars were shining bright. Read our roundup of yesterday's action from across South America.
Almada the star as Argentina peg back Colombia
While Strasbourg's Valentín Barco remained on the bench for the hosts, three Ligue 1 players featured at the Monumental as Argentina drew one-all with Colombia. In the eleven, Lyon's Thiago Almada was the hero as he helped the hosts recover from going a goal and a man down to level the score with an inch-perfect finish across goal ten minutes from time. Also in the eleven was Facundo Medina (RC Lens), while Leonardo Balerdi (Olympique de Marseille) came off the bench. For the visitors, Deiver Machado (RC Lens) played 90 minutes as Colombia saw their six-match winless run in qualifying continue but maintain a provisional place in the table good enough to make it to North America next summer.
¡GOOOL DE ARGENTINA! ⚽️ Thiago Almada la cruzó al segundo palo e iguala el partido a falta de 10 minutos 💪
80' | 🇦🇷 Argentina 1 - 1 Colombia 🇨🇴
Mirá #ArgentinaXTelefe con @giraltpablo, @JPVarsky y @SofiMMartinez por https://t.co/2ECurz6Kmn 🏆 #Eliminatorias pic.twitter.com/AZyaiwkLC8— telefe (@telefe) June 11, 2025
Chile eliminated, Brazil edge Paraguay
In Bolivia, the struggles of Gabriel Suazo (Toulouse FC) and Chile continued as the high altitude did La Roja no favors, despite the hosts playing more than an hour with ten men. With two matches remaining, Chile are bottom of the qualifying table and have been officially eliminated from next year's final tournament. In Uruguay, Suazo's Toulouse teammate Cristian Cásseres was also in action, and suffered a similar fate, as his his Venezuelan side lost 2-0, but remained a point ahead of Bolivia for the play-in spot.
In Brazil, the hosts boasted a back line that was made almost entirely of Ligue 1 McDonald's players -- Alexsandro (LOSC Lille) and Marquinhos (Paris Saint-Germain) were Carlo Ancelotti's centre back pairing, while Vanderson (AS Monaco) started at right back and another Paris player, Lucas Beraldo, came off the bench. Their hard work in defence allowed Brazil to secure a 1-0 over Paraguay that officially sealed their place in next year's competition. Finally, Ecuador and Willian Pacho (PSG) played out a scoreless draw in Peru, keeping hold of second place in the table, having already confirmed their place.
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