IFFHS CONTINENTAL NEWS - CONMEBOL
Picture : James Rodríguez who scored against Argentina for the first time in his career has become the 2nd Colombian player to score against all 9 his South American rivals
Statistics on WC 2026 qualifiers in South America (match-day 8)
*Brazil lost an away game vs Paraguay (0-1) for the first time since 2008.
*Paraguay got advantage on the scoreboard against Brazil in a qualifying match for the first time since 29 March 2016 (in a match that ended 2-2).
*Paraguay’s coach Gustavo Alfaro did not lose against Brazil with his teams in the last 4 times he faced them, including:
1-1 with Ecuador at Copa América 2021,
1-1 with Ecuador at World Cup 2022 Qualifiers,
0-0 with Costa Rica at Copa América 2024.
*With the 0-0 vs Venezuela, Sergio Rochet became the first Uruguayan goalkeeper to link 5 consecutive games without conceding a goal in World Cup Qualifiers. The previous record (4 in a row) was held by Ladislao Mazurkiewicz.
*With the 1-0 win over Peru, Ecuador has only conceded 1 goal in their last 5 qualifying matches: an unprecedented such series in their history.
*Enner Valencia who scored the winner in this game became the 4th Ecuadorian player with 10+ goals in the World Cup Qualifiers, after Agustín Delgado (16), Felipe Caicedo (15) and Edison Méndez (11).
*Bolivia (2-1 away vs Chile) opened the scoreboard playing as a visitor in the South American qualifiers for the first time since October 2017 when they made it 1-0 against Uruguay in a match that ended 2-4.
*Bolivia had advantage on the scoreboard playing as a visitor in the qualifiers for the first time since November 2020 (in Paraguay, in a match that ended 2-2).
*Colombia have beaten Brazil and now also Argentina (2-1) in the same qualifying campaign for the first time in their history.
*Colombia defeated a current World champion for the 3rd time in their history. All three times it was against Argentina, including:
2-1 in the 1987 Copa America (in Buenos Aires),
1-0 in a friendly played in 1989 (in Barranquilla).
*Argentina have only lost 3 of their last 65 games: against Saudi Arabia, against Uruguay and now against Colombia.
*James Rodríguez who scored against Argentina for the first time in his career has become the 2nd Colombian player to score against all 9 his South American rivals. The first to achieve this was Arnoldo Iguarán.
*After eight rounds, Colombian (4 wins, 4 draws) is the only one that remains undefeated in the current South American Qualifiers.
There were only 3 similar cases in the history of competition before:
Brazil, on the way to World Cup 2006,
Argentina and Brazil, on the way to World Cup 2022.