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Argentina beats Peru 1-0 in qualifiers, nears World Cup spot
Argentina's Lautaro Martinez celebrates scoring his side's opening goal against Peru during a qualifying soccer match for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)

Argentina beats Peru 1-0 in qualifiers, nears World Cup spot

SAO PAULO (AP) — Argentina beat Peru 1-0 on Thursday in South American World Cup qualifying. Despite the unimpressive performance, Lionel Messi’s team is now closer to a direct spot at Qatar next year.

Lautaro Martinez scored the only goal of the match with a header in the 43rd minute after a cross from the right by Rodrigo de Paul. Messi had a quiet performance in front of his home fans.

Peru had the golden chance to equalize from the spot in the 65th minute, but veteran Yoshimar Yotun hit the bar. The result also extended Argentina’s unbeaten run to 25 games.

Second-place Argentina has 25 points after 11 matches — its encounter against leader Brazil was suspended after seven minutes of play due to COVID-19 protocols. FIFA will decided whether the match will be re-played or not.

Martínez agreed Argentina had more difficulties against Peru in comparison with the 3-0 hammering of rival Uruguay on Sunday.

“Our game was more fluid against Uruguay, there were more gaps. We had a few difficulties, but we managed to always find a solution. Today we did find it.”

Brazil leads the qualifying competition with 28 points, and will play later against Uruguay. Brazil’s tally so far would have been enough to qualify for all World Cups directly since 2002.

Ecuador remains in third spot with 17 points after a 0-0 draw at Colombia, which has 16 points in fourth, marginally ahead of Uruguay.

Bolivia trashed Paraguay 4-0 in La Paz, causing their rivals to fire coach Eduardo Berizzo after the match. Rodrigo Ramallo, Moises Angulo, Victor Abrego and Roberto Fernandez scored the goals of the match. Bolivia rose to seventh place with 12 points, skipping ahead of eighth position Paraguay.

The top four teams earn direct entry to the World Cup in Qatar next year. The fifth-place team can still qualify via an intercontinental playoff.

South American World Cup qualifiers will resume with two rounds in November.

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More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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Mauricio Savarese is at https://twitter.com/msavarese