Buenos Aires: Reigning Champions Champions Argentina have qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026 without kicking a ball after Bolivia’s goalless draw at home to Uruguay in the qualifiers.
Argentina became the sixth nation to enter the field following the three co-hosts, Canada, Mexico and USA, as well as Iran, Japan and New Zealand.
Bolivia, the only team outside the automatic places who could have caught Argentina in the South American preliminaries, drew 0-0 against Uruguay on to leave themselves an insurmountable gap in the South American qualifiers.
The 2026 edition will be Argentina’s 19th World Cup. Only Germany and Brazil, who were at their 20th and 22nd respectively in Qatar, have participated in more.
Argentina may have banked World Cup qualification before taking to turf, but that didn’t stop them coming out at a frenetic pace when they hosted Brazil and thrashed the visitors 4-1 in the qualifiers.
Thiago Almada spun Marquinhos and slipped the ball into Julian Alvarez, who bundled his way between two opponents and poked it past Bento to break the deadlock. Then Nahuel Molina’s low cross somehow got past three Brazilian bodies to gift Enzo Fernandez a back-post tap-in, FIFA reports.
The Selecao halved the deficit when Matheus Cunha burgled the ball off Christian Romero and arrowed it into the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty area. The two-goal lead was nevertheless restored when Alexis Mac Allister got to Fernandez’s dink into the box before Bento and steered it home. Giuliano Simeone scored Argentina’s fourth goal – and his first at international level – with a masterful finish from a tight angle after Brazil’s backline was caught sleeping.
Raphinha hit the crossbar with a free-kick thereafter, but this wasn’t their night. It was emphatically Argentina’s, who delivered one of their most-dominate all-time performances in the fixture and remain unbeaten in it in six years.
(IANS)
