11 October,2009 12:10 PM IST | | PTI
Argentiina coach Diego Maradona called the goal by second-half substitute Martin Palermo "the Miracle of St. Palermo." And why not? The scrambled goal, three minutes into second-half injury time, helped struggling Argentina scrape by Peru 2-1 yesterday.
That means the two-time champions will reach next year's World Cup in South Africa if they can win on Wednesday in the final round of qualifying at bitter rival Uruguay. Anything less and they could face a playoff - or be out altogether.
Elsewhere in Europeu00a0 Italy scraped a draw against the Republic of Ireland to join Germany, Denmark and Serbia as the latest teams to secure 2010 World Cup places on a drama-laden penultimate batch of qualifiers.
This quartet join already-qualified England, Spain and the Netherlands, leaving two automatic berths from the continent still up for grabs heading into Wednesday's last throw of the South Africa dice.
Argentina played poorly despite fielding many of the world's best players, but escaped with the late victory.
Chile avoided the drama, winning 4-2 at Colombia to claim the third of four automatic qualifying spots from South America for its World Cup appearance since 1998. Colombia was eliminated.
Waldo Ponce, Humberto Suazo, Jorge Valdivia and Fabian Orellana scored for Chile. Uruguay kept its World Cup hopes alive, winning 2-1 in Quito at 2,800 meters after Diego Forlan converted a penalty in the fourth minute of injury time.
Uruguay will also advance automatically if it beats Argentina on Wednesday in Montevideo.
In the day's other match, Paraguay won 2-1 at Venezuela thanks to second-half goals by Salvador Cabanas and Oscar Cardozo.
The fourth-place team also gets an automatic berth, and No. 5 faces a playoff in November with the No. 4 from North and Central America and the Caribbean.
Teams finishing sixth or worse are out. Argentina has 25 points in fourth place followed by Uruguay with 24, Ecuador with 23 and Venezuela with 21.
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