A turbulent evening in South America: Paraguay spits on Lionel Messi, Neymar gets popcorn in his head | sports

Messi himself remained quiet about it. “I didn’t see it at the time, my teammates told me in the locker room. I don’t know this guy. I don’t want to make too much of him either, because I don’t want to make him famous. During the match, Messi got into a heated argument with Sanabria five minutes before The end. A few expletives flew back and forth, but when Messi turned around, Sanabria appeared to spit on the Inter Miami star. Sanabria is under fire in Argentina and surrounding areas.

Argentina also eventually won the third match in the South American World Cup qualifiers. The world champion beat Paraguay 1-0 in Buenos Aires. Argentina started against Paraguay at the Estadio Monumental without Messi, who started on the bench as a precaution. Even without the captain, the world champions dominated the match with at least 75 percent of the ball.

The winning goal came after just two minutes, when captain Nicolas Otamendi shot the ball beautifully and powerfully from a corner kick executed by Rodrigo De Paul. Messi entered after the break. The Inter Miami playmaker hit the post twice.

Brazilian soccer fans were there at night from Thursday to Friday Not amusing. Brazil surprised Venezuela in the South American World Cup qualifying group. In a packed Arena Pantanal in the central Brazilian city of Cuiabá, the score became 1-1 in the final stage thanks to an absolute world-class goal scored by Eduard Bello (see above). Which angered the Brazilian fans.

After the draw in Cuiabá, the Brazilian internationals not only enjoyed a flute concert, but also popcorn, and a full suitcase. Pictures showed that star player Neymar was hit in the head by a bag of popcorn from the audience as he left the stadium. The angry striker, who currently plays for Saudi club Al-Hilal, was then dragged into the players’ tunnel by his teammates.

Venezuela is widely considered one of the weakest countries in South America’s World Cup qualifiers, so a 1-1 draw at home was considered a bad result. The team of coach Fernando Diniz, who combines national training with his work as coach of Fluminense, dominated the match, but were only able to score once from a large number of chances.

Defender Gabriel Magalhaes scored the first goal from a Neymar corner kick with a header shortly after the end of the first half. Shortly after, it seemed that Brazilian dominance had paid off with the second goal, but it was Vinicius Junior’s goal. It was disallowed for offside shortly before Neymar.

Towards the end, Brazil slowed down a bit and got the bill six minutes from time. Edward Bello scored the equalizer with a beautiful goal. Thanks to the draw, which Venezuelans celebrated as a victory, Venezuela is now in sixth place in World Cup qualifying. Brazil ranks second behind leaders Argentina.

Colombia and Uruguay tied 2-2 and ranked third and fourth respectively in the World Cup standings. Ecuador won 2-1 in Bolivia, Chile beat Peru 2-0 and now ranks fifth. Tuesday is the fourth of eighteen rounds.

The qualifying series in South America does not promise to be very exciting. Due to the increase in the number of countries participating in the 2026 finals in the United States, Mexico and Canada, the continent can send more representatives. Of the ten countries playing a full competition against each other, the top six advance to the final round. Number Seven gets another chance at an intercontinental playoff.