Lionel Messi on Thursday hit a post twice after he came off the bench, but struggled to deliver a strong performance following his return from injury. Still, Argentina beat Paraguay 1-0 in their South American World Cup qualifying match.
Argentina’s biggest South American rivals left the pitch to some jeers at Cuiaba, Brazil, after the hosts and Venezuela drew 1-1. The result put pressure on new Brazil coach Fernando Diniz and kept Argentina as the sole leaders of the round-robin competition with their third victory in three matches.
The only goal of the match at the Monumental de Nunez Stadium came in the third minute after a corner that found Nicolas Otamendi free in the penalty area. The defender smashed the ball into the net with a left-foot volley.
Photo: AP
Messi has felt muscular pains in his right leg that has sidelined him for several matches at his club Inter Miami. Coach Lionel Scaloni picked Nico Gonzalez as his replacement. The star substituted Julian Alvarez in the 52nd minute, when Argentina were already in the lead.
Messi hit the post from a corner he took 10 minutes after stepping on the pitch, but his other efforts to dribble and give deep passes fell flat.
A free-kick from the same spot where he scored the winner against Ecuador last month raised hopes for Argentina fans shortly before the final whistle, but Messi’s shot hit the right post.
“I get very calm when we have Leo on the pitch,” Argentina midfielder Rodrigo de Paul said. “We are at a very good level. We feel comfortable with the way we are playing.”
For the first time, Brazil failed to beat Venezuela at home. Neymar, Vinicius Junior and Richarlison struggled the entire first half to get a clear shot on goal.
Seconds after Neymar got his first big opportunity after the break, with a shot from the edge of the penalty area, Brazil scored with an assist from the al-Hilal player.
Neymar took a corner that ended in a close-range header by Gabriel Magalhaes in the 52nd minute at the Arena Pantanal.
Venezuela scored in the 85th minute with a half bicycle-kick by Eduardo Bello, in one of the most impressive goals of South American World Cup qualifying so far.
Venezuela’s defense managed to keep Brazil at bay until the final whistle.
“Now we have to hold our heads up high and think about Uruguay. We wanted to go at them, they wanted to defend and we couldn’t break them like we wanted,” Brazil captain Casemiro said.
Elsewhere on Thursday, Colombia and Uruguay drew 2-2. Ecuador beat Bolivia 2-1 in La Paz with a goal in the final moments of the match and Chile beat Peru 2-0.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with