Argentina dropped to fifth place in the South American World Cup qualifying group after stumbling to a 2-0 defeat in Bolivia. Argentina played without captain Lionel Messi because he was given a four-match ban for abusing an official just a few hours before the match. The incident took place during Thursday's 1-0 win over Chile, when Messi used "insulting words" towards an assistant referee.
Juan Carlos Arce and Marcelo Martins scored for Bolivia, who are currently ninth in the group and don't have a realistic chance of qualifying despite this great result. Argentina are in fifth place, one point behind fourth-placed Chile and eleven points behind group leaders Brazil. The top four teams qualify for the World Cup, while the team in fifth place will play the winners of the Oceania group in a two-legged play-off.
Colombia beat Ecuador 2-0 with goals from James Rodriguez and Juan Cuadrado and moved up into second place, nine points behind leaders Brazil. "Bolivia won fair and square," Argentina coach Edgardo Bauza said. "We are still alive and we want to qualify for the World Cup. We know that this is going to be a battle and we are going to keep fighting."
Argentina are currently 10/1 at Bet365 to win the 2018 World Cup.
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Comments (1)
sharpe
03/29/17, 11:03:11 PM
In the end the big favourites in South America (Brazil and Argentina) never missing a huge event (World Cup) because the qualification system in the region is too...
In the end the big favourites in South America (Brazil and Argentina) never missing a huge event (World Cup) because the qualification system in the region is too generous to them, literally half of the continent goes to the WC for tournament so no worries for Argentina, they've been in that situations at least couple more times in the last 20 or so years and always made it in the end.
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