Uruguay vs Argentina, 5 Talking Points; FIFA World Cup Qualifiers

#1. The possibility of Lionel Messi missing the World Cup still exists

Lionel Messi's international legacy is still poised on a knife's edge

In the end, though, it will still always be about Lionel Andres Messi, won't it?

Brazil eased past Ecuador to finish winners of the group - an incredible performance (overall) from Tite's men - while Chile failed to get past Paraguay and lost 2-0 to the "minnows". This was good news for La Albiceleste as they come closer to Chile and have a real chance of working their way back up the rankings to an automatic qualifying position. But it also brought Paraguay closer to Argentina - such is the tight nature of qualifying on this continent!

A World Cup without Messi would be a disaster - some convoluted conspiracy theories suggest this may be a reason behind FIFA's relaxation of the four game ban they'd earlier imposed on the Argentine captain - but we might have to wait till the final round of qualification to get a confirmation on the great man's participation in Russia 2018.

Here's how the table looks like after a frenetic day's action in South America (read as rank, nation, points accrued - all teams apart from Peru and Bolivia have played 15 games as of the time of publishing)

1. Brazil - 36

2. Colombia - 25

3. Uruguay - 24

4. Chile - 23

TOP 4 AUTOMATICALLY QUALIFY

5. Argentina - 23

FIFTH PLACE GOES INTO PLAY-OFF WITH OCEANIA (i.e. New Zealand

6. Paraguay - 21

7. Ecuador - 20

8. Peru - 18

9. Bolivia - 10

10. Venezuela - 7