First to join the party

Top of the football rankings Brazil became the first team to qualify for Russia 2018 after humiliating Uruguay 4-1 in Montevideo and picking up an expected 3-0 win at home to Paraguay. At the same time, Ecuador moved down the rankings and qualifying table, losing 2-1 in Paraguay and 2-0 at home to Colombia while Argentina suffered a 2-0 loss in Bolivia.

In the CONCACAF section Panama lost 1-0 away to Trinidad and Tobago while in Oceania Papua New Guinea were stunned 3-1 at home to Tahiti but bounced back 2-1 in their away match.

In Europe the low countries had a low time with the Dutch losing 2-0 in Bulgaria and Belgium needing a late goal to draw 1-1 at home to Greece in qualifiers while Luxembourg lost a friendly 2-0 at home to Cape Verde. In another friendly match Estonia shocked Croatia 3-0 in Tallinn after having picked up a point in a goalless qualifier match in Cyprus while Macedonia put 3 past hosts Liechtenstein without reply. In Asia Japan won 2-0 in the UAE and South Korea lost 1-0 in China while in qualifiers for the 2019 Asian Cup India shocked hosts Myanmar 1-0 while Kyrgyzstan could only put one goal past their visitors from Macau and Bahrain drew blanks at home to Singapore. In the qualifiers for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, South Sudan surrendered 2-0 in Djibouti but progressed to the next round.

Nicaragua became the last team to qualify for this year’s Gold Cup with a 3-0 home victory against Haiti.