Argentina have spluttered their way through the 2018 FIFA\u2009World Cup qualifiers so far and a win over Uruguay will be crucial for Jorge Sampaoli\u2019s men.<\/p>\n
Luis Suarez could yet line up against Barcelona team-mate Lionel Messi on Thursday as South America\u2019s battle for 2018 World Cup places resumes with Argentina\u2019s trip to Uruguay the pick of the fixtures.<\/p>\n
With leaders Brazil already locking up their place at next year\u2019s tournament, attention turns to the tussle for the three remaining automatic berths on offer in the marathon 10-team qualifying tournament.<\/p>\n
Colombia are second in the standings on 24 points while Uruguay and Chile occupy the other two automatic spots on 23 points.<\/p>\n
It means that fifth-placed Argentina have little margin for error as they head to Montevideo\u2019s Estadio Centenario for the latest instalment of their historic rivalry with the Uruguayans.<\/p>\n
Argentina have spluttered their way through the qualifiers so far, notching only six wins in 14 games, but have shown signs of life under new coach Jorge Sampaoli.<\/p>\n
Sampaoli, who masterminded Chile\u2019s victory at the 2015 Copa America, took control of the \u2018Albiceleste\u2019 in May, and began his reign with a morale-boosting 1-0 win over Brazil in a friendly in June.<\/p>\n
A 6-0 romp over lowly Singapore provided a further clue that Sampaoli, who favours an aggressive, attacking style, may already have begun to have an influence.<\/p>\n
Sampaoli served notice of his determination to invigorate Argentina\u2019s ranks by axing striker Gonzalo Higuain in favour of Inter Milan\u2019s Mauro Icardi.<\/p>\n
Icardi is expected to start at the apex of a front three with Messi and Juventus prodigy Paulo Dybala lurking just behind.<\/p>\n
Argentina\u2019s path to Russia has been complicated by the Court of Arbtitration for Sport ruling on Tuesday that confirmed a sanction against Bolivia for fielding an ineligible player in their September 2016 0-0 draw with Chile.<\/p>\n
FIFA later converted that result to a 3-0 win for Chile, a ruling that means Sampaoli\u2019s former team now have a one-point advantage over the fifth-placed Argentines.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we have to play catch-up to get to the World Cup,\u201d Sampaoli said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Uruguay meanwhile are sweating on the fitness of Barcelona star Suarez.<\/p>\n
The 30-year-old talisman was initially ruled out of the fixture through injury but has travelled back to his homeland to train with the team.<\/p>\n
Veteran coach Oscar Tabarez hinted Suarez may yet make a dramatic return on Thursday, declining to rule out the striker.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has shown signs of recovery that have rather surprised us,\u201d Tabarez said.<\/p>\n
If Suarez fails to win his fitness battle, Uruguay will once again turn to in-form Paris Saint-Germain striker Edinson Cavani, who is the top scorer in the qualifying competition with nine goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a very, very difficult match… We will see who has the most guts for it,\u201d said Tabarez.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere on Thursday, second-placed Colombia will aim to edge closer to qualification with an away victory over already-eliminated Venezuela.<\/p>\n
Fourth-placed Chile meanwhile host Paraguay in Santiago as they aim to remain ahead of Argentina in the qualifying positions.<\/p>\n
Brazil will have the luxury of being able to treat their game against Ecuador in Porto Alegre as a training exercise after securing qualification in their last outing, a 3-0 win over Paraguay in March — their eighth consecutive victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Argentina have spluttered their way through the 2018 FIFA\u2009World Cup qualifiers so far and a win over Uruguay will be crucial for Jorge Sampaoli\u2019s men. Luis Suarez could yet line up against Barcelona team-mate Lionel Messi on Thursday as South America\u2019s battle for 2018 World Cup places resumes with Argentina\u2019s trip to Uruguay the pick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3270,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3271,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3269\/revisions\/3271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}