BUENOS AIRES, Sept 12: Lionel Messi’s recent goal spree came to an abrupt halt as Argentina rode their luck to come away from Lima with a 1-1 draw against Peru in the latest round of South American World Cup qualifiers on Tuesday.

Argentina lead the nine-nation group with 14 points from seven matches but cannot afford to relax as Colombia and Ecuador moved within a point.

Colombia won 3-1 at ten-man Chile while reigning continental champions Uruguay were held to a tame 1-1 draw by Ecuador in Montevideo.

So far, the South American qualifiers are living up to up to their billing as the toughest of the zonal qualifiers as the Argentineans are now just three points clear of sixth-placed Venezuela, who beat out-of-sorts Paraguay 2-0 in Asuncion.

The top four teams advance automatically to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. The fifth-placed team face a playoff against a team from Asia. Five-time champions Brazil have automatically qualified as the host nation.

Gonzalo Higuain scored in the 37th minute to help Argentina scratch out the draw after defender Carlos Zambrano had given Peru the lead in the 22nd.

Messi was almost unrecognisable as the world’s best player, softened by a series of early fouls but not subjected to the aggressive man-marking Diego Maradona endured in a 1-0 defeat in the Peru capital 27 years ago.

“The pitch didn’t help, you needed one or two touches more to control the ball. We left the pitch angry because we couldn’t play our game but an away draw is good,” Messi, who had scored 10 goals in his last six internationals, told reporters.

Colombia, meanwhile, dealt Chile their first defeat in eight games, coming from behind to win a nail-biter in Santiago.

Chile’s Gary Medel was sent off after 34 minutes and the home side threw everything into attack and were rewarded with a Matias Fernandez goal in the 58th minute.

But James Rodriguez hit back immediately and two goals inside three minutes, from Radamel Falcao and Teofilo Guttierez, broke Chile down.

Uruguay’s Edinson Cavani scored in the 67th minute to salvage a 1-1 draw against Ecuador. Felipe Caicedo had given Ecuador a 1-0 lead with a 6th minute penalty.

The team that came off worst were Paraguay, accustomed to doing well enough to have reached four successive finals but now rooted to the bottom of the standings after Jose Salomon Rondon scored both goals for Venezuela, the only South American country never to have qualified for the finals.

Results: Chile 1    Colombia 3 Uruguay 1    Ecuador 1 Paraguay 0    Venezuela 2 Peru 1    Argentina 1—Agencies