Neymar's stunning assist for his teammate was not enough to help Brazil win against Venezuela and lose the top spot in the South American World Cup qualifiers to Argentina.
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| The Brazilian team (in yellow) is currently ranked second in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in South America. |
After winning the first two matches, Brazil confidently welcomed Venezuela in the third match of the South American World Cup qualifiers on the morning of October 13 (Vietnam time).
With a star-studded squad playing in Europe such as Casemiro (MU), Junior Vinicius and Rodrygo (Real Madrid), Ederson (Man City), Marquinhos (PSG) and especially captain Neymar (who just moved from PSG to play football in Saudi Arabia), Brazil still had difficulty finding a way into Venezuela's goal when the visitors played tight defense and were not afraid of collisions.
Venezuela's tough play proved effective in breaking up most of the home team's attacks.
Even the away team created many dangerous counter-attacks, making Brazil not dare to push their formation too high and the first half ended without any goals being scored.
However, just 5 minutes into the second half, Brazil unexpectedly opened the scoring. From a very difficult corner kick by Neymar, Arsenal defender Gabriel Magalhaes headed the ball extremely dangerously past goalkeeper Romo.
The opening goal boosted the home team’s morale and they continued to put enormous attacking pressure on the visitors. Despite the increased space available to the Brazilian forwards, the home team’s attack did not play well.
They often made mistakes in the decisive stages. Rodrygo shot wide from close range, while Vincius had the ball in the net but it was ruled out for offside.
Despite many attacks but no goals, Brazil paid the price in the 85th minute. Bello had a beautiful "bicycle kick" in the penalty area that left goalkeeper Ederson standing and watching. The home team tried to find a goal in the final minutes but failed.
In the end, Brazil was unexpectedly held to a draw by Venezuela at home, thereby losing the top spot in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in South America to Argentina (the team that had won a narrow 1-0 victory over Paraguay just hours earlier).
After 3 wins, Argentina leads with 9 points, while Brazil is in second place with 2 points less. The team that has not won any points after 3 matches is Bolivia, which is at the bottom of the table.
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| World Cup 2026 qualifying rankings in South America. (Source: LS) |
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