Chile and their Bayern midfield star Arturo Vidal made it a perfect start to 2018 World Cup qualifying with a thrilling 4-3 victory over Peru on Tuesday night. At the end of 90 breathless minutes in Lima, the Copa America holders edged the contest thanks to goals from Alexis Sanchez (7, 44) and Eduardo Vargas (41, 49), with Vidal making a 65-minute appearance. Former Schalke winger Jefferson Farfán (10, 36 (pen)) and ex-Bayern striker Paolo Guerrero (90+2) scored for the home team. Chile have maximum points from their first two qualifiers.
Costa starts for Brazil
Earlier in the evening, Douglas Costa started for five-time world champions Brazil in a 3-1 victory over Venezuela and turned in a busy display before his 75th-minute substitution. Willian (1, 42) and Ricardo Oliveira (73) netted for A Seleção with Christian Santos scoring for Venezuela in the 64th minute. Brazil were beaten 2-0 by Chile in their opening qualifier but now lie in mid-table. The next round of matches includes the showdown with Argentina on 13 November. The beaten 2014 World Cup finalists have only one point from their two games so far.
No miracle for despondent Dutch
Arjen Robben is not yet match fit and was restricted to a spectator’s role as the Netherlands lost 3-2 at home to the Czech Republic in Amsterdam and missed out on the European championship in France next summer. Pavel Kaderabek opened for the visitors after 24 minutes, with Josef Sural making it two 11 minutes later. Czech defender Marek Suchy was sent off for a foul as last man before the break, but Robin van Persie unluckily put through his own goal on 66 minutes to make the score 3-0. Schalke’s Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (70) and van Persie (83) reduced the arrears but it was a case of too little, too late.
Easy win for Kimmich
Joshua Kimmich and the Germany U-21s continued their serene European championship qualifying progress with a 6-0 victory on the Faeroe Islands. A crowd of 580 at the Torsvollur stadium saw the visitors score through Max Meyer (8, 40), Maximilian Arnold (13), Niklas Süle (45+2), Leroy Sané (73) and Serge Gnabry (75), with Kimmich playing the whole match. Germany lead their qualifying group with three wins from three fixtures.
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