IFFHS CONTINENTAL NEWS AND STATS - SOUTH AMERICA QUALIFIERS
Picture : Luis Díaz is the first Colombian player to score a brace against Brazil in a World Cup qualifier.The only Colombian player to score a brace against Brazil before, Luis Muriel, did it in a friendly (in 2019).
Statistics on WC 2026 qualifiers in South America (match-day 5)
*Brazil have lost two consecutive games (0-2 vs Uruguay on 17 October and now 1-2 vs Colombia) for the first time in the entire history of World Cup qualifiers.
*It is Colombia's first victory against Brazil in the history of qualifiers.
Overall, Colombia had only defeated Brazil 3 times before: in the friendly in 1985, in Copa América 1991 and in Copa América 2015.
*The last one who scored a brace vs Brazil in a qualifier before Luis Díaz was Humberto Suazo (Chile) in 2009.
In an earlier period, it was achieved also by Julio Baldivieso (Bolivia) in 2001, Diego Forlán (Uruguay) in 2003, Ruberth Morán (Venezuela) in 2004 and Hernán Crespo (Argentina) in 2005.
*Luis Díaz’s brace is the fastest (in space of 3 minutes 45 seconds) among all the mentioned above.
*Argentina and Brazil have lost on the same day for the second time in the history of the qualifiers. It also happened on 8 October 2015 (Chile vs Brazil 2-0 and Argentina vs Ecuador 0-2).
*With their victory against Peru (2-0), Bolivia has ended an unprecedented streak of 4 consecutive qualifying defeats at home (against Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Ecuador).
*Peru became the first team in the history of South America to begin a World Cup Qualifier without scoring a single goal in their first 5 games.
*Including the playoff match against Australia in the previous World Cup qualifying edition, Peru have 6 consecutive matches without scoring in the qualifiers. In the next game vs Venezuela they can equal the worst historical streaks of the CONMEBOL zone (7 games) shared by Venezuela, Paraguay and Colombia.
*In the worldwide ranking of worst ongoing streaks of consecutive games without scoring a goal in World Cup qualifiers, Peru take joint third place with Bahamas (also 6, since 2015), “conceding” only to Anguila (12, since 2004) and Seychelles (7, since 2008).
*Ramiro Vaca (Bolivia) has ended a streak of 30 consecutive goals scored from inside the area in the South American qualifiers.
Curiously, the last goal with a shot from outside the area had also been scored by a Bolivian player (Víctor Abrego vs Brazil).
*Peru have finally stopped their unbelievable run of 571 minutes without a single shot on goal (!) in the WC qualifiers. It started since Yotún's goal against Paraguay on 29 March 2022 and was only closed in the game vs Bolivia with a shot by Lapadula in the 43rd minute.