Argentina lead the way
© AFP
THE DAY REPLAYED – Matchday 7 of the South American qualifying competition for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ was dominated by the four home sides, who all won to improve their respective positions in the section. Third at the start of the day, Argentina beat a Paraguay side under new management to move out front in the group, thanks also to previously unbeaten Uruguay’s defeat in Colombia and Chile’s rest day. Elsewhere, Bolivia made a losing start under their new coach, and Venezuela came unstuck in Peru.
Match of the day
Colombia 4-0 Uruguay
Goals: Radamel Falcao 2, Teofilo Gutierrez 47 and 52, Camilo Zuniga 90
The only undefeated team going into Friday’s games, Uruguay had that status taken away from them in Barranquilla. La Celeste arrived in the coastal city with designs on replacing Chile as group leaders only to suffer a heavy defeat that could have been even more emphatic and raises questions as to their future in the competition. After getting off to a fast start, Los Cafeteros proved much the better side in chalking up their first home win of the campaign and producing their best performance since Jose Pekerman’s arrival as coach. Playing in his hometown, Teo Gutierrez was one of the stars of the show with two goals, the front man finding the net again a year and a day after his last goal for his country.
“The difference between the teams wasn’t down to the heat. They played better, created chances and scored four goals” said Oscar Tabarez, who now has the job of lifting a side beaten for the first time in 18 games and 16 months.

Elsewhere
There were no such mishaps for Argentina, who are looking down on everyone after easing to a 3-1 win over Paraguay. Alejandro Sabella’s men were in commanding form, with the Real Madrid-Barcelona connection of Angel Di Maria, Gonzalo Higuain and Lionel Messi working well for them in attack. All three players were on target as the hosts earned their sixth straight win, the Barça ace capping another polished displayed by scoring his first free-kick on national duty to make it ten goals in his last six matches for his country. Jonathan Fabbro scored Paraguay’s goal from the penalty spot 17 minutes in, momentarily cancelling out Di Maria’s opener. Yet that was as good as it got for the visitors on Gerardo Pelusso’s debut as coach, and they now drop to last place.
New Bolivia boss Xabier Azkargorta also began with a defeat, this time in Quito, where Felipe Caicedo marked his first international appearance for a year by striking from the spot late on to give Ecuador a 1-0 victory. El Tricolor now stand third on 12 points, all of them garnered at home, where they have a perfect record, having scored six times in four games and conceded none.
Finally, Peru got back to winning ways after four consecutive defeats, coming from behind to see off Venezuela 2-1. Juan Arango put the visitors ahead with a superb free-kick only for Jefferson Farfan to turn the game on its head with a brace. The Peruvians, who play host to Argentina next week, move off the bottom and into seventh, while La Vinotinto, who have still to win in Lima, drop to sixth in the table.
Player of the day
Jefferson Farfan (PER)
The Peruvian striker appeared just when his country needed him, scoring twice with his right foot in the space of 12 second-half minutes to turn their match with Venezuela around. Substituted after 79 minutes, La Foquita (The Little Seal) is something of an expert when it comes to FIFA World Cup qualifiers, having now scored ten goals across three qualifying campaigns.
The stat
39 -
The number of years since Argentina’s previous home win over Paraguay in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match: a 3-1 success on 7 October 1973. The next five qualifiers between the two nations on Argentinian soil were all drawn, a sequence that ended on Friday.
What they said
“We lost 4-0 to Brazil in the last qualifying competition and that proved the turning point for a recovery that took us to the World Cup. I don’t know if things will turn out the same this time, but I know the resources I’ve got and that it’s important for us to go and beat Ecuador. Colombia? They performed very well, and they’re playing better than at other times in the competition,” Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez.

The results
Colombia 4-0 Uruguay
Ecuador 1-0 Bolivia
Argentina 3-1 Paraguay
Peru 2-1 Venezuela


Links

Group Matches
TeamMPWDLGFGAPts
Argentina641114513
Chile6402111012
Ecuador64027612
Uruguay6321141011
Colombia63129510
Venezuela7223588
Peru62048126
Bolivia71157124
Paraguay61145124

Match times are currently set to local time, please click here to convert to your time zone.
Fixtures
DateVenue Matches
11/09/12 16:30Santiago De Chile ChilePreviewAdd your commentColombia
11/09/12 18:30Montevideo UruguayPreviewAdd your commentEcuador
11/09/12 19:25Asuncion ParaguayPreviewAdd your commentVenezuela
11/09/12 20:25Lima PeruPreviewAdd your commentArgentina
12/10/12TBA Colombia-Paraguay
12/10/12TBA Argentina-Uruguay
12/10/12TBA Ecuador-Chile
12/10/12TBA Bolivia-Peru
16/10/12TBA Venezuela-Ecuador
16/10/12TBA Bolivia-Uruguay
16/10/12TBA Paraguay-Peru
16/10/12TBA Chile-Argentina
22/03/13TBA Uruguay-Paraguay
22/03/13TBA Colombia-Bolivia
22/03/13TBA Argentina-Venezuela
22/03/13TBA Peru-Chile
26/03/13TBA Venezuela-Colombia
26/03/13TBA Chile-Uruguay
26/03/13TBA Bolivia-Argentina
26/03/13TBA Ecuador-Paraguay
07/06/13TBA Peru-Ecuador
07/06/13TBA Paraguay-Chile
07/06/13TBA Argentina-Colombia
07/06/13TBA Bolivia-Venezuela
11/06/13TBA Venezuela-Uruguay
11/06/13TBA Ecuador-Argentina
11/06/13TBA Chile-Bolivia
11/06/13TBA Colombia-Peru
08/09/13TBA Paraguay-Bolivia
08/09/13TBA Chile-Venezuela
08/09/13TBA Peru-Uruguay
08/09/13TBA Colombia-Ecuador
10/09/13TBA Uruguay-Colombia
10/09/13TBA Paraguay-Argentina
10/09/13TBA Venezuela-Peru
10/09/13TBA Bolivia-Ecuador
11/10/13TBA Ecuador-Uruguay
11/10/13TBA Colombia-Chile
11/10/13TBA Venezuela-Paraguay
11/10/13TBA Argentina-Peru
15/10/13TBA Paraguay-Colombia
15/10/13TBA Uruguay-Argentina
15/10/13TBA Peru-Bolivia
15/10/13TBA Chile-Ecuador
Results
DateVenue Matches
07/09/12 20:25Lima Peru2:1 (0:1)Venezuela
07/09/12 20:10Cordoba Argentina3:1 (2:1)Paraguay
07/09/12 16:00Quito Ecuador1:0 (0:0)Bolivia
07/09/12 15:30Barranquilla Colombia4:0 (1:0)Uruguay
10/06/12 16:00Quito Ecuador1:0 (0:0)Colombia
10/06/12 15:30Montevideo Uruguay4:2 (2:1)Peru
09/06/12 18:05Puerto La Cruz Venezuela0:2 (0:0)Chile
09/06/12 16:00La Paz Bolivia3:1 (1:0)Paraguay
03/06/12 17:00Lima Peru0:1 (0:0)Colombia
02/06/12 19:30Buenos Aires Argentina4:0 (3:0)Ecuador
02/06/12 16:10La Paz Bolivia0:2 (0:1)Chile
02/06/12 15:00Montevideo Uruguay1:1 (1:0)Venezuela
15/11/11 20:30Santiago De Chile Chile2:0 (1:0)Paraguay
15/11/11 20:30San Cristobal Venezuela1:0 (1:0)Bolivia
15/11/11 16:00Quito Ecuador2:0 (0:0)Peru
15/11/11 16:00Barranquilla Colombia1:2 (1:0)Argentina
11/11/11 21:00Asuncion Paraguay2:1 (0:0)Ecuador
11/11/11 20:00Montevideo Uruguay4:0 (2:0)Chile
11/11/11 19:00Barranquilla Colombia1:1 (1:0)Venezuela
11/11/11 17:00Buenos Aires Argentina1:1 (0:0)Bolivia
11/10/11 20:20Puerto La Cruz Venezuela1:0 (0:0)Argentina
11/10/11 19:45Santiago De Chile Chile4:2 (2:0)Peru
11/10/11 19:45Asuncion Paraguay1:1 (0:0)Uruguay
11/10/11 16:00La Paz Bolivia1:2 (0:0)Colombia
07/10/11 20:15Lima Peru2:0 (0:0)Paraguay
07/10/11 20:10Buenos Aires Argentina4:1 (2:0)Chile
07/10/11 17:00Montevideo Uruguay4:2 (3:1)Bolivia
07/10/11 16:05Quito Ecuador2:0 (2:0)Venezuela