Vinicius Junior marked his return to the Maracana with his first international goal and standout performance in Brazil’s 4-0 hammering of Chile on Thursday.
The 21-year-old wide winger started his career at Flamengo before joining Real Madrid, and he impressed in his old club, taking advantage of a clever Neymar fake to sneak an angled shot past Claudio Bravo on the stroke of halftime.
Brazil won for the sixth time in seven home qualifiers against Chile, who must now beat Uruguay in their final match next Tuesday to have any chance of qualifying for the World Cup play-offs.
In other news, Uruguay and Ecuador qualified for the World Cup finals, joining Brazil and Argentina as the South American group’s automatic qualifiers.
Uruguay won 1-0 over Peru and Ecuador fell 3-1 against Paraguay, giving both teams 25 points with one match remaining. Peru is in fifth place with 21 points.
Peru, Colombia (20 points), and Chile (19 points) will now compete for fifth place and a place in the play-offs against an Asian team.
In the last round of games, Peru will host Paraguay, Colombia will go to Venezuela, and Chile will play Uruguay at home on Tuesday.
Watch Vinicius first goal below:
Uruguay’s World Cup goal-line issue
Giorgian de Arrascaeta’s goal three minutes before halftime gave Uruguay the victory over Peru. Peru was sure that a late looping shot held by Uruguay goalkeeper Sergio Rochet had crossed the line, but the referee dismissed their claims.
“With all due respect to CONMEBOL (South American Football Confederation), the referees, and everyone affiliated with VAR, this is not fair,” striker Paolo Guerrero posted on Instagram.
“It’s inexcusable; I hope they take action since (we) performed admirably and everyone knows it. I’m hoping the individual responsible shows up because they would be robbing us of our World Cup qualification.”
Ecuador qualified regardless of their performance in Paraguay as a result of Peru’s defeat, and they were thrashed by the hosts, who gave coach Guillermo Barros Schelotto his first win since taking over in October last year.
After 10 minutes, Robert Morales put Paraguay ahead, and on the stroke of halftime, Piero Hincapie scored an own goal to give the hosts a 2-0 advantage.
Watch Peru’s disallowed goal below:
With nine minutes left in the second half, Miguel Almiron made it 3-0 before Jordy Caicedo scored for Ecuador. Paraguay won for the first time in eight games.
