Brazil have one eye on WC qualification

After last month's turbulent round of World Cup qualification matches, for their next games Brazil can boast a full squad and a clear objective: booking their ticket for Qatar.

The Selecao have a perfect record of eight wins from their eight qualifiers so far ahead of Thursday's trip to Venezuela, followed by a clash away to Colombia on Sunday and the visit of Uruguay next week.

Three more victories could possibly secure Brazil's qualification in record time. Brazil will also hope to avoid the chaos of last month's qualifiers when coach Tite was shorn of nine members of his original squad and saw their clash with Argentina abandoned after just 10 minutes by Brazilian public health officials.

Those issues have now been confined to the past, although there is still no news on when the match will be replayed.

Brazil lead the single South American qualifying table by six points from Argentina and their in-form Lionel Messi, who last week opened his account for Paris Saint-Germain with a wonder goal to seal a 2-0 Champions League win over Manchester City. Unbeaten Argentina travel to Paraguay on Thursday, host Uruguay on Sunday and then entertain Peru next week.

Last time out, Messi scored a hat-trick in a 3-0 win at Bolivia to overtake Pele as the top international goalscorer in South American football, taking his tally to 79 goals in the light blue and white stripes.

Like Brazil, Copa America champions Argentina's qualification looks to be a formality but the battle behind them for the remaining two places is fierce.