Brazil will look to seal direct spot

For front-running Brazil, the main aim this week is beating Colombia and securing an automatic spot at next year’s World Cup in Qatar with plenty of time to spare in South American qualifying.

For second-place Argentina, the bigger concern ahead of its trip to Uruguay is over the fitness of Lionel Messi.

Messi has travelled to Argentina but has a knee injury that kept him out of two matches for his club Paris Saint-Germain.

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni has not given any hints on whether Messi will play or, in the case he doesn’t, who would be picked as a replacement.

Brazil has 31 points and Argentina has 25 from 11 matches — their encounter in September was bizarrely suspended over breaches of COVID-19 protocols. FIFA will decide what to do with it. Ecuador (17), Colombia (16) and Uruguay (16) hold the next three places, but have all played 12 matches.

The top four teams in South America earn direct entry to next year’s World Cup. The fifth-place team goes into an inter-continental playoff for a spot in Qatar.

A Brazil victory at the NeoQuimica Arena in Sao Paulo on Thursday will put coach Tite’s team 18 points ahead of fourth-place Colombia, which will have only five more matches in hand. The Colombians are the only team to hold the Selecao to a draw in the current edition of qualifiers.

Some mathematical combinations allow second-placed Argentina to hope for its direct spot with a win against Brazil next week in San Juan, but the Copa America champion will have to beat Uruguay in Montevideo on Friday to have any chance of achieving that in front of its home fans.

There’s three other matches in South American qualifying on Thursday, including Ecuador hosting last-place Venezuela and Peru against Bolivia.

Paraguay, in eighth place, will play sixth-place Chile in a match that could nearly end qualification hopes for one of them. Guillermo Barros Schelotto will have his debut as head coach after Paraguay fired Eduardo Berizzo in October.