SAO PAULO, March 30: Peru beat Paraguay 2-0 on Tuesday in the last round of South American World Cup qualifiers to secure fifth place in the standings and entry to an intercontinental playoff for a spot in Qatar.
Gianluca Lapadula opened the scoring in Lima in the 5th minute and Yoshimar Yotún scored in the 42nd.
The Peruvians needed a win to qualify regardless of the results of Colombia and Chile. They finished the 10-team round-robin competition with 24 points, one ahead of the Colombians.
That intercontinental playoff in June will be against either Australia or United Arab Emirates, the teams which are playing off for fifth place in Asian qualifying.
Peru was also fifth in South American qualifying for the 2018 World Cup, and advancing to the finals by beating New Zealand.
Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Ecuador had already secured South America’s four direct entries for Qatar.
Also on Tuesday, Brazil achieved a landmark with a 4-0 rout of Bolivia. With 45 competition points, Tite’s team broke Argentina’s record of 43 in qualifying for the 2002 World Cup.
Playing without suspended Neymar and Vinicius Jr., Brazil eased through in the altitude of La Paz with two goals from Richarlison and others from Lucas Paquetá and Bruno Guimarães.
FIFA wants Brazil and Argentina to go ahead and play their suspended encounter, which was stopped in its first minutes on Sept. 6 because of COVID-19 protocols.
In other results, Colombia beat Venezuela 1-0, with James Rodriguez scoring the only goal from the spot in first-half stoppage time.
Chile lost to Uruguay 2-0 at home, a result that ended its chances and pushed the Uruguayans to third place. Luis Suárez netted the first in the 79th minute and Federico Valverde added a second shortly before the final whistle.
Ecuador dropped to fourth place after a 1-1 draw with Argentina. Julian Alvarez opened the scoring in the 24th minute, but Enner Valencia equalized in stoppage time. (AP)
