'Don't lose hope,' Brazil skipper tells fans ahead of Uruguay meeting in FIFA WC qualifiers

Brazil could fall eight points behind Argentina in the South American qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup this week, but defender Marquinhos has urged the fans of the Selecao to have faith.

After 11 rounds, five-time World Cup winners Brazil have are fourth in the CONMEBOL (South American Football Confederation) standings, with a run of five wins, four losses and two draws. Brazil are five points behind leaders Argentina (22), and two short of Uruguay (19), whom they host Tuesday. Argentina will host Peru on the same day.

“Even though many things might cause people to lose hope in the national team, we ask that they never lose their passion for it,” Marquinhos said. Brazil were held 1-1 in Venezuela on Thursday, with Vinicius Jr seeing a late penalty saved.

Uruguay beat Brazil 2-0 in Montevideo last year. Under head coach Dorival Junior, Brazil are going through a period of transition. “We will still make some mistakes because this transition is still very new, with all these changes of players and teams,” said Marquinhos. “But we will make fewer and fewer mistakes, and that makes us happy.”

The PSG defender said the players are not overly concerned about Brazil's position in the table. “We don’t worry too much about the standings as long as we’re in a comfortable position. We want to win to move up the table, make the workflow better, and gain confidence.”

How CONMEBOL qualifiers work
There are 10 participating teams in the CONMEBOL namely Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

The South American qualifiers that began on September 7, 2023 will run till September 2025. Each nation will play the other nine sideshome and away. After 18 rounds of CONMEBOL qualifiers, the top six will qualify for the FIFA World Cup while the seventh-placed finishers will go into the FIFA play-off tournament.

In the play-offs, six sides, involving teams from all other confederations, other than UEFA, will fight it out for the final two places. Besides two teams from Concacaf, one team apiece from the AFC, CAF, CONMEBOL and OFC, will participate in the play-off tournament.