World Cup Qualifier: Argentina, Brazil Keep Winning Streak Against Chile, Venezuela

Reigning champions of South America, Argentina maintained their unbeaten start to their World Cup qualifying campaign, cruising to a 3-1 victory at 10-man Venezuela on Thursday night.

Brazil too continued their perfect start to qualifying with a seventh win out of seven as Everton Ribeiro scored the only goal in a 1-0 away victory over Chile.

In his first match for his country since moving to Paris Saint-Germain, Lionel Messi struggled to stamp his authority on the match in Caracas, but it mattered little.

The match turned decisively in the visitors' favour on the half-hour as Luis Adrian Martinez, who was an early substitute and had been on the field for less than five minutes, lunged in rashly on Messi.

The referee brandished a yellow card but following a VAR review, that was upgraded to a straight red card for the ugly studs-up challenge.

The match turned into attack versus defence and Argentina secured the crucial breakthrough in first-half injury time.

As the pressure mounted, Giovani Lo Celso slipped in a perfectly timed pass for Lautaro Martinez to slot into the bottom corner.

Argentina laboured after the break against a packed defence but substitute Joaquin Correa finally put the match to bed 20 minutes from time with a fierce low strike from just inside the area after good work from Messi and Lautaro Martinez.

Three minutes later, Lautaro Martinez's snapshot was stopped by Venezuela goalkeeper Wuilker Farinez but Angel Correa mopped up the rebound.

Messi was given a great chance to get his name on the scoresheet five minutes from time but shot too close to Farinez.

Substitute Alejandro Gomez then stood on Soteldo's foot in the penalty area, allowing the diminutive playmaker to salvage some Venezuelan pride from the spot.

Argentina travel to Brazil on Sunday in a repeat of July's Copa America final, in which they won 1-0 to end a 28-year wait for a major trophy.

"It will be a great, important match after the final we played," said Lautaro Martinez.

"We have to rest and then approach the match like we did the Copa America final."