BUENOS AIRES: Argentina missed the chance to go top of the South American qualifying table for the 2014 World Cup on Friday, being held 1-1 at home by Bolivia.
The belligerent Bolivians took their first point of the campaign againts Alejandro Sabella’s star-studded Argentina which included Barcelona striker Lionel Messi and PSG midfielder Javier Pastore.
Argentina are second, level on points with Uruguay who host Chile later on Friday.
The Argentinians have four points from three games with tailenders Bolivia earning one point thanks to a Marcelo Martins goal in the Monumental Stadium here.
Messi admitted he was feeling “frustrated” after throwing away two points and warned that his side needed to win on Tuesday against Colombia.
“I’m frustrated because we had chances but we didn’t have luck, we need to win whatever comes,” said world player of the year Messi.
Despite the hosts dominating play early in the hard fought match they were surprised when Martins scored after 55 minutes following an error from Malaga defender Martin Demichelis.
But Napoli striker Ezequiel Lavezzi got the Albiceleste level again four minutes later to the relief of the 30,000 spectators.
Messi admitted his side had again made work more difficult for themselves after a 1-0 defeat against Venezuela last month, following a 4-1 win over Chile.
“The important thing now is to win to make things easier on ourselves and so we can work calmly.”
“We want to find out game and do things well.”
“This was very important, Argentina have great players, but they were up against a Bolivia who have worked to improve, unfortunately we didn’t get the result we came for even if we did surprise Argentina,” said Martin.
“We wanted to take these three points because they were important, but couldn’t despite all our efforts,” said Argentina defender Clemente Rodriguez.
Argentina play Colombia on Tuesday, while Bolivia take on Venezuela.
Meanwhile, Uruguay striker Luis Suarez scored all four goals as the Copa America holders crushed Chile 4-0 on Friday to stay top of the South American 2014 World Cup qualifying group.
Suarez scored twice in each half, his goals spanning a 30-minute period in which Uruguay devastated Chile, who went into the match following coach Claudio Borghi’s dismissal of five of his players for indiscipline in midweek.
Chile were also weakened by the last-minute withdrawal of key player Alexis Sanchez, who aggravated a right biceps problem during the warm-up. Sanchez had been out for almost two months with the injury.
Suarez was substituted soon after his final goal to resounding cheers from the crowd of more than 40,000 at the Centenario stadium, and watched the rest of the game from the bench with the match ball under his arm.
“(I scored four goals) just once or twice at Ajax but it’s the first time for the national team and I’m very happy,” Suarez told reporters.
Uruguay lead the nine-nation group with seven points from three matches after last month’s home 4-2 win over Bolivia and 1-1 draw at Paraguay.
China’s World Cup
dream in tatters
China surveyed the ruins of another dismal World Cup qualifying campaign on Saturday as North Korea’s bid hit the wall and Australia’s progress was checked by lowly Oman.
China’s loss against Iraq left Juan Antonio Camacho’s men all but out of the running for Brazil 2014, needing a hatful of goals in their final two matches and for other results to go their way.
Younis Mahmoud’s injury-time strike gave Iraq a 1-0 victory in Doha late on Friday and effectively extended China’s wait for a second appearance on football’s biggest stage after their winless showing in 2002.
“China played bravely, but we won the match and the result has almost guaranteed our place in the last 10,” said Iraq’s coach, Brazilian legend Zico.
Japan, Uzbekistan advance in Asian qualifying
Japan, Uzbekistan and Jordan were the first teams to advance to the last round of Asian World Cup qualifying Friday, while Australia was humbled by Oman 1-0 and North Korea was eliminated from contention.
Japan beat host Tajikistan 4-0 and Uzbekistan defeated visiting North Korea 1-0 to send both winners into the fourth and decisive round.
North Korea became the first team from the 2010 World Cup to be knocked out of the running for Brazil 2014. Indonesia also dropped out of contention after losing 4-0 to Qatar. (Agencies)