Bad luck for Luis Suarez as he said goodbye to international football on Friday. Paraguay held Uruguay to a 0-0 draw in South American 2026 World Cup qualifying.
Suarez, 37, said on Monday that he was leaving international duty. He had a great 17-year run with Uruguay, scoring 69 goals in 143 games and becoming the country’s top scorer.
But the great player who used to play for Barcelona and Liverpool and now plays for Inter Miami in Major League Soccer couldn’t score his 70th goal for his country in Friday’s farewell game at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo.
Even though Uruguay had 65% of the ball, they couldn’t get past a stubborn Paraguay defense in a game that was all over the place and had 24 fouls.
Suarez was one of four Uruguay players to get a yellow card in a rough game. Suarez’s career as a player and for his country was marked by problems, like the time he was banned for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini at the 2014 World Cup.
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With 14 points from seven wins, Uruguay is in second place in South America’s round-robin qualifying tournament, four points behind leader Argentina.
If Colombia beats Peru in Lima later Friday, they will move ahead of Uruguay.
The top six teams in South America easily make it to the 2026 finals in North America, while the seventh-placed team has to play in a playoff to get there.