Venezuela resumed this Friday the path of victory to beat Bolivia 4-1 in the fifteenth day of the South American qualifiers for Qatar 2022, in a match that marked the debut of José Pekerman with the Vinotinto and in which the great star was Salomón Rondón with three goals. The local team, which was arranged on the pitch with a 4-2-3-1 and is already eliminated from the World Cup, amazed La Verde from the beginning, which lost camber and moves away from the fifth place that can give it access to the World Cup .
The game started and the Venezuelan fans had to pinch themselves. The same team that, under the baton of Leonardo González and José Peseiro, saw the rival goal from an abysmal distance, went for the Bolivian goal, with a fast-paced game and leaving no room to catch their breath. As a result of this colorful and offensive game, Venezuela went ahead on the scoreboard in the 24th minute, thanks to a recovery of the ball in the center of the field. The ball reached Yeferson Soteldo, who filtered the ball almost to the bottom line, where Óscar González centered backwards so that Rondón opened the scoring with a header. Just ten minutes later, Tomás Rincón received a ball near midfield, headed towards the center channel of the field and passed Rondón at the edge of the area. The striker settled the ball before the passivity of the Bolivian defense and fired a hard shot to get the second goal of the day. A move that Rondón coached on several occasions when César Farías, today the Bolivian coach, was coach of Venezuela.
The worst ghosts of the Vintotinto reappeared in minute 37, when Juan Carlos Arce put a cross from the right side so that Bruno Miranda, very alone and before the astonished and disorganized look of the local defense, he finished off with a header to score the only goal for his team. However, after passing through the locker room, the dynamic was maintained and the local team shook a blurred Bolivia on the field at will. Out of ideas, the visiting defense made an incomprehensible mistake when, in the 54th minute, they began a series of passes between them that ended with a very weak one by Diego Bejarano towards goalkeeper Carlos Lampe. Darwin Machisvery attentive, took advantage of the incomprehensible set to steal the ball, stand alone in front of the goal and score the third for his team.
The account did not end there. In the 66th minute, Soteldo passed the ball from the right side to Rómulo Otero, who managed to filter a pass between the lines for Rondón. In the center of the area, the striker scored the third in his personal account, the fourth for Venezuela. Minutes before, the Ecuadorian referee Guillermo Guerrero expelled the Bolivian Leonel Justiniano for a direct red cardwhich hampered any possibility of a comeback for his team.
With 4-1, Venezuela scored the same goals in one game as in the previous five games, in addition to showing a new face when it is already eliminated from Qatar 2022. The victory also moves Bolivia away from qualifying for the World Cup by finishing eighth. of the South American group four points behind Uruguay, fifth, which marks the qualifying position for the playoffs.