Argentina win without Messi, Brazil leave it late

World champions Argentina won 3-0 at 10-man in Bolivia without Lionel Messi while Brazil left it late in their 1-0 in Peru in the South American qualifying zone for the 2026 World Cup on Tuesday night.

In the high altitude of La Paz, Enzo Fernández opened the scoring for Argentina in the 31st and Nicolás Tagliafico added the second 10 minutes later, both set up by Angel di Maria.

Bolivia had Roberto Fernández dismissed between the two goals, and Nicolás González wrapped up matters for the visitors with seven minutes left.

Captain Messi watched the game from the subs' bench as coach Lionel Scaloni said: "He did not feel well. We are taking no risks."

Argentina have a maximum six points from two games after opening the campaign last week 1-0 against Ecuador.

Brazil are also perfect as they followed up on their 5-1 against Bolivia with the late victory in Peru.

Playing under interim coach Fernando Diniz, Brazil were erratic in Lima but also had two goals disallowed in the first half after video reviews, including a header from Richarlison that took seven minutes to be disallowed.

It eventually took the Selecao until the 90th minute to break the deadlock, with Marquinhos heading home off Neymar's corner kick.

"No one believed that we would be able to score from a dead ball at this time of the match, but that is also part of our game," Marquinhos said.

Elsewhere, Ecuador beat Uruguay 2-1, Panama beat Venezuela 1-0 and Chile v Colombia ended 0-0.