BUENOS AIRES, Nov 9: Depleted Argentina beat Peru 2-0 in their South American World Cup qualifier here on Thursday on a night when Venezuela gave a warning to Brazil by beating Paraguay 3-1.

Argentina, without Diego Simeone, Gabriel Batistuta and Hernan Crespo, completed a victory over the Peruvians, whose most effective player, Bayern Munich striker Claudio Pizarro, was sent off with quarter of an hour to go, and the team’s technical director Julio Uribe was banished from the sidelines for arguing about the expulsion.

The home side, already qualified for next year’s World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan as runaway group winners, opened the scoring in the 46th minute through AS Roma defender Walter Samuel after a goalmouth scramble.

Then Juan Pablo Sorin set up striker Claudio Lopez for their second five minutes before time.

Valencia striker Kily Gonzalez, who was booked with a quarter-hour to go, is suspended for their final qualifying match against Uruguay in Montevideo next Wednesday.

Argentinian coach Marcelo Bielsa was happy with the performance of his team. “It was good to see we had few defensive problems, we controlled the match from start to finish and managed to earn a comfortable win.”

Argentina lead the South American table with 42 points and 13 victories from 17 games. Peru are in ninth spot in the 10-team table with 15 points.

In their final matches next Wednesday, Uruguay, in fifth spot and competing with Brazil and Colombia for the fourth and last automatic qualifying spot, host Argentina and Peru entertain Bolivia.

Venezuela beat Paraguay 3-1 to send a warning to Brazil, who are just 90 minutes from missing out on the finals for the first time. Few however would bet against Brazil beating Venezuela next Wednesday to sneak into next year’s finals.

First-half goals from Ruberth Moran, Daniel Noriega and Hector Gonzalez were enough to see Venezuela to victory though Francisco Arce pulled a goal back for Paraguay from the spot.

Thursday’s results:

Argentina 2 Peru 0

Venezuela 3 Paraguay 1.—AFP