There’ll be no World Cup for Alexis Sanchez’s Chile side, while Olivier Giroud became France’s seventh all-time highest goalscorer.
The end of October’s international fixtures saw a crazy night in which some big nations fell at the final hurdle.
In South America, Alexis Sanchez’s Chile needed to beat a very in-form Brazil and hope other results went their way to gain qualification for Russia 2018.
Unfortunately for them and Alexis, they went down 3-0 thanks to a brace from Manchester City’s Gabriel Jesus and a goal from Barcelona’s Paulinho.
That defeat would have still been enough for Chile to finish in the play-off spot, but Peru managed a 1-1 draw with David Ospina’s Colombia and squeezed into fifth place on goal difference. Colombia, meanwhile, managed to secure the final automatic spot.
In Europe, Granit Xhaka played 90 minutes for Switzerland as they lost 2-0 in Portugal. Despite winning their first nine games in the group, the defeat was enough to bump down to second place. They’ll now need to negotiate a play-off tie in November to make the World Cup.
It’s better news for Olivier Giroud, who started and scored for France in their 2-1 win over Belarus. The result secured France’s place in this summer’s tournament.
Giroud’s goal means he’s now France’s seventh all-time highest goalscorer, level with Youri Djorkaeff on 28 and just two behind his hero, Jean-Pierre Papin. Alexandre Lacazette was an unused substitute.
Elsewhere, Sead Kolasinac started for Bosnia but was substituted at half-time for what seemed to be tactical reasons. Bosnia defeated Estonia 2-1, but the result wasn’t enough to secure them a play-off spot.
Takuma Asano featured for Japan in their 3-3 draw with Haiti, while Ainsley Maitland-Niles started for the England u21s in their 1-0 victory over Andorra.