(Football news) Argentina have a chance to qualify for Qatar 2022, provided they win against Brazil. Argentina narrowly won 1-0 against Uruguay last week to consolidate their second position in the group and become only the second team from South America to qualify for next year's World Cup. For Brazil they will look to keep their unbeaten record alive as they will be without their talisman Neymar Jr for this clash between two South American giants. Argentina coach confirmed that Messi has recovered fully from the knee and hamstring worries that kept him out of PSG’s last two games, he will most likely feature after making a brief appearance against Uruguay. Argentina are on a 26 game unbeaten streak, a run that includes a 1-0 win over Brazil in the Copa America final in Rio de Janeiro in July. On the other hand Brazil will look to achieve the highest ever points tally in the qualification rounds.
"He was physically fit the other day and in the end we decided that the best thing was for him to play a few minutes so that he could get a feel for it and he is confirmed to play tomorrow. It's going to be a very difficult game. They are the team that leads the qualifiers and they are already through to the finals.," Scaloni said of Tuesday's match in San Juan.
"Neymar Jr said he felt insecure about the situation and as there is not enough time to carry out complementary exams the technical commission decided to rest the player who will not travel with the team to San Juan, location of Tuesday's game against Argentina," the Brazil team said in a statement.
Uruguay take on Bolivia in what is a very crucial match for Uruguay’s qualification hopes. One thing going in favour of La Celeste is that they have won 31 out of 45 matches against Bolivia, Oscar Tabarez men seemed to be flying in qualification, having won four of their first nine outings and collected 15 points to comfortably occupy a space at the top end of the table, but they have since hit a major dip in form. Uruguay will be without Edinson Cavani, Giorgian De Arrascaeta and Darwin Nunez for this clash.
Chile face high flying Ecuador as both sides have to win in order to get that elusive fourth spot in the table. Ecuador are third in the table with a three point lead over Uruguay, Chile and Colombia but as for now nothing is certain especially the tough matches that they have. For Chile they most likely will be without Arturo Vidal through injury and Ben Brereton who has been scoring some crucial goals for Chile will also be out of this fixture.
Colombia face Paraguay as they have dropped to fifth spot having collected just three points from those four matches.Given their expectations, Colombia have had a relatively unremarkable qualifying campaign for next year's World Cup, having won just three and drawn seven of their 13 outings. Colombia are World Cup regulars and need to get a string of results if they are to qualify for Qatar next year. Talisman James Rodriguez will most likely feature in the playing XI after a long hiatus, with Colombia failing to score in the last four matches, Luis Muriel might replace his club teammate Duvan Zapata in the starting XI.
