Chile beat Ecuador 2-1 in Santiago to revive their hopes while Argentina continued their disappointing form with a goalless draw in Buenos Aires against Peru to leave their 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification hopes hanging by a thread.
Goals from Eduardo Vargas and Alexis Sanchez, either side of Romario Ibarra's equaliser, were on Thursday night enough to put Chile into third place in the South American qualifying group on 26 points as well as knock out Ecuador, reports Efe.
Chile will hope to seal their berth in Russia when they travel to the already qualified Brazil next week.
Argentina continued their disappointing form with a goalless draw at home to Peru, leaving them level on points with Peru in sixth place.
Argentina visit Ecuador in the next round of games while Peru host Colombia in the final round.
"The team is already thinking about what is coming, the match against Ecuador. It is up to us (the qualification)," Argentina head coach Jorge Sampaoli said.
A victory for Peru would mean automatic qualification, while Argentina need to win and hope other results play in their favour to stand any chance of going to Russia.
Colombia slipped to a surprise 1-2 defeat at home to Paraguay on Thursday and now occupy fourth place.
Two goals from Cardozo and Santabria in the closing stages stole the victory from Colombia, who had led through Radamel Falcao's 79th minute strike at the Estadio Metropolitano in Barranquilla.
Meanwhile in San Cristóbal, Venezuela held second-placed Uruguay goalless.
The top four teams in the South America group qualify automatically, while the fifth placed team will advance to an intercontinental playoff.
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