{"id":18784,"date":"2025-09-11T00:04:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T00:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=18784"},"modified":"2025-09-11T00:04:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T00:04:09","slug":"bolivia-down-brazil-to-grab-world-cup-play-off-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=18784","title":{"rendered":"Bolivia down Brazil to grab World Cup play-off spot"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Bolivia kept their 2026 World Cup dream alive by snatching a play-off place with a 1-0 victory over Brazil in El Alto on Tuesday, taking advantage of Venezuela&#8217;s home defeat to Colombia.<\/p>\n<p>Miguel Terceros&#8217;s penalty on the stroke of half-time proved to be the difference for Bolivia against the five-time world champions, in a match played 4,150 metres above sea level.<\/p>\n<p>The victory dragged Bolivia above Venezuela into seventh place in the final standings of South American qualifying, earning them a berth in next year&#8217;s continental play-offs for the tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Venezuela, who were hoping to qualify for the World Cup for the first time, held a one-point lead over Bolivia heading into the last round of matches, but were beaten 6-3 at home by Colombia.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re very happy, but we need to keep our feet on the ground, knowing that we have to keep fighting,&#8221; said Bolivian coach Oscar Villegas.<\/p>\n<p>Two nations will qualify for the World Cup from the six-team play-off tournament to be held next March, reportedly in Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>Bolivia are hoping to reach the World Cup finals for the first time since a group-stage exit from the 1994 edition in the USA.<\/p>\n<p>Their victory on Tuesday sparked wild celebrations on the streets of the major city of La Paz, which neighbours El Alto.<\/p>\n<p>Reigning champions Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay had all already secured automatic tickets to the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere in the final round of games, Argentina lost 1-0 in Ecuador, Paraguay beat Peru 1-0 in Lima, while Chile and Uruguay played out a goalless draw.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bolivia kept their 2026 World Cup dream alive by snatching a play-off place with a 1-0 victory over Brazil in El Alto on Tuesday, taking advantage of Venezuela&#8217;s home defeat to Colombia. Miguel Terceros&#8217;s penalty on the stroke of half-time proved to be the difference for Bolivia against the five-time world champions, in a match [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18784\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}