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By: Oma Akatugba
Thanks to a superior Lionel Messi, Argentina has prevented an embarrassing failure, defeated Ecuador and managed to earn a qualification for Russia 2018
The Argentinian national team will go to Russia in 2018, especially thanks to Lionel Messi. He scored all three goals in the 3-1 win in Ecuador (11th, 19th and 61st minutes). The two-time world champion Argentina thus turned an embarrasing situation into qualifying for the Word cup.
In addition to the already qualified Brazil, Uruguay also finished second in front of Argentina, Brazil beat Copa-América winners Chile by 3-0 and this ended any hopes of Chile making it to the world cup.
The fourth World Cup ticket was won by Colombia who beat Peru 1-0 win in Lima, thanks to a goal from FC Bayern Munich’s Jamés Rodríguez .
Peru will now have to play a two legged playoff against Australia to stand any chance of playing in Russia. The last time the Peruvians participated at the World Cup was in 1982.
