Lionel Messi and Alexis Sanchez, clubmates at Barcelona, sparkled as Argentina and Chile put behind them a weekend to forget with victories in the South American 2014 World Cup qualifiers Tuesday. Messi led the fightback for a 2-1 away win over Colombia as Argentina fielded a world class trident in attack by bringing on Sergio Aguero to join Messi and Gonzalo Higuain for the second half. The victory lifted Argentina into second place in the standings on seven points, the same number as leader Uruguay, which has a game in hand, but behind on goal difference. Venezuela is third, also on seven points, after a 1-0 home win over Bolivia with Ecuador and Chile, who beat Paraguay 2-0 at home, on six. Colombia and Paraguay have four, Peru three and Bolivia one. Colombia, host to Argentina on a heavy Metropolitano pitch in hot and humid Barranquilla on the Caribbean coast, had the better of the first half and led 1-0 at the interval after Darlon Pabon scored with a free kick that took a deflection off Javier Mascherano. “Messi was decisive because he gradually wore down the whole of the rival defense,” Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella told reporters. “It was a very important match for us after two bad results... We had a huge weight on our backs.” Sabella, his team the subject of heavy criticism since Friday's 1-1 draw with Bolivia in Buenos Aires, went for the win in the second half with Aguero giving his attack the depth it had lacked for 45 minutes. With Colombia's defense stretched, Messi equalized when goalkeeper David Ospina could not hold Jose Sosa's low cross and the Argentina captain pounced to slot home just past the hour for his second goal of the 2014 qualifiers. With six minutes to go, Messi fed Higuain in the box, Ospina could only parry the striker's shot and Aguero, in hot scoring form for Manchester City, steered the rebound inside the near bottom corner. Venezuela followed up its 1-0 win over Argentina last month, with another sound home performance to beat Bolivia by the same score in a downpour in San Cristobal. Ecuador made the most of the advantage from their home matches with a 2-0 win over Peru at the Atahualpa in Quito.
