South American stars sweating on qualification

Three of South American football's biggest stars -- Luis Suarez, Edinson Cavani and Alexis Sanchez -- risk missing out on the World Cup in Qatar as South American qualifying enters its final straight.

With Brazil and Argentina already qualified, seven nations are battling it out for the final two automatic qualifying spots with just four matches remaining.

Right now Suarez and Cavani's Uruguay and Sanchez's Chile are both sitting a point outside the crucial fourth spot held by Colombia. Uruguay are currently seventh and have changed coaches since the last round of matches in November.

After a record-breaking 15 years at the helm, iconic veteran coach Oscar Tabarez was fired following a disastrous fourth straight qualifying defeat in which Uruguay conceded 11 goals and scored just one.

Diego Alonso will take charge of the team for the first time in a bid to negotiate the tricky path towards Qatar.

Twice former winners, Uruguay have not failed to qualify for the World Cup since 2006.

Uruguay travel to Paraguay on Thursday before hosting Venezuela -- the only team in the single 10-nation qualifying group with no realistic hope of reaching Qatar -- on February 1.

Only Venezuela and the top two -- Brazil and Argentina -- have nothing to play for. But even though Paris Saint-Germain teammates Neymar and Argentina's Lionel Messi have been left back in Europe, neither side will be expected to take their remaining matches lightly.

"In the few matches that remain, no coach is going to do a lot of experimenting," Brazilian commentator Paulo Calcade of the Disney sports channels told AFP.