SAO PAULO: On a day overshadowed by the shocking suspension of the ‘superclasico’ between Brazil and Argentina because of breaches of Covid-19 restrictions, Uruguay and Colombia added key points in South American qualifying for the World Cup.

The Uruguayans thrashed Bolivia 4-2 at home to move into fourth place with 12 points after eight matches. Colombia had a 1-1 draw at Paraguay. It was Colombia’s third consecutive draw, but enough for Reinaldo Rueda’s side to stop Paraguay moving into fifth spot in the standings.

Brazil lead the pack with 21 points from seven matches, followed by Argentina with 15. The top four teams in South American qualifiers get direct spots at next year’s World Cup in Qatar, and the fifth-placed team will go into an intercontinental playoff.

FIFA will decide the future of the qualifier between Brazil and Argentina. Their match was stopped after seven minutes with a 0-0 score when local health authorities walked onto the field in a bid to remove three England-based Argentina players who they believe should have been in quarantine rather than playing in Sao Paulo.

Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez and Tottenham duo Cristian Romero and Giovani Lo Celso were on the Neo Quimica Arena pitch as part of the Argentine line-up when officials from Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa invaded the pitch and stopped the game.

The trio, along with Aston Villas Emiliano Buendia, who was in the stands, had reportedly breached Brazilian rules stating that travellers who have been in the UK, South Africa or India during the previous 14 days are forbidden from entering the country, unless they are Brazilian citizens or have permanent residency.

The regulations were put in place to control the spread of Covid-19, which has killed more than 583,000 Brazilians.

While the visiting team quickly left the field, the two coaches, along with Argentina captain Lionel Messi and the Brazilian players, gathered at the side of the pitch to discuss the stoppage.

“Why did they start the game and stop it after five minutes?” Messi said in comments heard on television. “We’ve been here at the stadium for an hour, they could have told us.”

Messi then returned to the dressing room and at 5pm local time, an hour after the game kicked off, the match was officially suspended.

The referee and the match official will take a report to the FIFA Disciplinary Committee and they will decide what steps to take, said a statement issued by the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL).

Anvisa said they had issued ample warnings that the four Argentines were in contravention of Brazilian health regulations.

Argentine officials were told on Saturday the four should isolate and when the instructions were ignored, Anvisa asked Brazilian federal police to enforce the isolation ruling on Sunday morning, the regulator said.

Their attempts were “frustrated,” Anvisa said in a statement issued late on Sunday.

Brazilian Football Confederation president said he was indignant with the scenes that reverberated around the football world.

Ednaldo Rodrigues criticised Anvisa and said officials told him the Argentines who breached the country’s Covid-19 rules could have been deported after the game.

“I feel sorry for all the sports fans who wanted to watch the game on television,” he told Brazils Sportv. “With all due respect to Anvisa, they could have resolved this earlier and not waited for the game to start.”

A shellshocked Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni agreed.

“It makes me so sad, I am not looking for guilty parties, whatever happened or didn’t happen, this wasn’t the time to do it,” he told Argentine broadcaster TyC Sports.

Argentine officials believed the same protocols used in the Copa America in Brazil in June were in place for the World Cup qualifiers to allow teams to travel across the continent. CONMEBOL confirmed that interpretation.

Brazil players stayed on the field after Argentina left, and started doing training exercises. Argentineans, including those considered to be a Covid-19 risk, stayed for more than three hours in their dressing room until they left for the airport.

Elsewhere, Giorgian de Arrascaeta scored twice as Uruguay had little trouble against a weak Bolivia line-up.

Bryan Rodriguez blasted over after 10 minutes but made up for his mistake five minutes later when his cross was knocked home by de Arrascaeta.

Federico Valverde made it two 14 minutes before half time with a low freekick.

Agustin Alvarez made it 3-0 two minutes into the second half only for Marcelo Moreno Martins, aided by poor defending and poor goalkeeping, to get one back for Bolivia after an hour.

De Arrascaeta added a fourth from the penalty spot and then Moreno Martins got his second, also from the spot, with seven minutes remaining.

Ecuador played out a goalless draw with Chile to move to third place on 13 points with Chile in eighth spot with seven points. Peru beat Venezuela 1-0 with a goal by Christian Cueva to move to seventh place with eight points.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2021