Atletico Madrid attacking sensation Julian Alvarez scored his 12th international goal as Argentina scraped past Chile 1-0 in CONMEBOL 2026 World Cup Qualifiers on Thursday night, MySportDab reports.
The reigning World and South American champions were the overwhelming favourites to ace this tie but the Chileans have never been an easy nut to crack.
They went into the game top of the rankings with 31 points and were the only team to have booked their ticket to the competition with four matches to spare.
Meanwhile, Chile entered the game bottom in the rankings with just 10 points after 14 matches and needed victory to boost their slender hopes of breaking even.
Against Argentina, it was certainly going to be a difficult tie for the home side, given the visitors’ impressive run in the competition.
It was largely a one-sided affair from start to finish. Argentina lorded proceedings over the host, wielding a staggering 67% of the ball possession and completing 744 passes.
They also fired 10 shots with four on target. Chile struggled to match the Albicelestre’s domineering sail in the match. They could only manage 33% of ball possession and had three shots less than their opponents with three on target.
Notably, despite Argentina’s dominant performance, the goal was hard to come by. Julian Alvarez’s 16th-minute strike was all Lionel Scaloni’s side needed to secure all three points.
Chile have now gone winless in their last three CONMEBOL 2026 World Cup Qualifiers matches. They will hope to return to winning ways in their next match against Bolivia but stand very little chance of breaking into the top six for an automatic ticket into the competition.
Meanwhile, Argentina will hope to continue on winning ways when they return to action against Colombia on Wednesday.
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
https://youtu.be/6_Y5X0B6uG4?si=YYjI-Bun4Qc4tMP1
