South American World Cup qualifying Round-Up

Chevanton, who took his tally to four goals in three World Cup qualifiers, equalised in the 31st minute after Rodrigo Melendez had put the visitors ahead against the run of play, before Marcelo Romero netted the winner early in the second half.

Melendez shot from outside the area, the ball bounced in front of Munua and the Deportivo La Coruna goalkeeper deflected it into the net. It was their only serious shot of the match on 20 minutes.

Lecce star Chevanton, scored from a stunning free kick in the 4-1 loss to Paraguay in September, and repeated the trick 10 minutes later to level the scores.

Uruguay took off Manchester United striker Diego Forlan at half-time after an ineffective performance and went ahead after another poor piece of goalkeeping, this time from Chilean veteran Nelson Tapia.

Richard Nunez floated in a long free kick from the left, Tapia was slow to come out of his goal and Romero sneaked in at the far post to head in.

It was all Uruguay after that as Tapia made up for his mistake by denying Chevanton and Nunez.

The result gives Uruguay six points from three games and Chile four in the South American group.

Uruguay are away to Brazil in their next game on Wednesday while Chile host Paraguay on Tuesday.

Argentina boosted their prospects of qualifying for the 2006 World Cup following a 3-0 home victory over Bolivia.

The host suffered a frustrating first period, before killing off the contest with a three-goal blitz in the space of just 13 second half minutes.

Andres D'Alessandro, Hernan Crespo and Pablo Aimar bagged the goals that moved Argentina onto seven points, while Bolivia have just three.

Venezuela caused somewhat of a shock with an unexpected away win in Colombia.

The hosts were shocked after just six minutes when Juan Arango netted to put Venezuela in front. Venezuela, the only South American team never to have played at the World Cup, only their second-ever away win in a qualifier.

The defeat could spell the end of Francisco Maturana's fourth stint as Colombia coach.

Paraguay were pushed all the way by a spirited Ecuador side.

Bayern Munich striker Roque Santa Cruz got the ball rolling for Paraguay with a goal on 29 minutes before Edison Mendez levelled the scores on 58.

The game looked to be heading for a stalemate before Jose Cardozo made sure of the result with the winner with just under 20 minutes remaining.