La Paz - Bolivia made the most of the high altitude in La Paz to beat Paraguay 4-2 Wednesday in the South American qualifiers to leave the bottom of the table. Paraguay was the lone leader in the qualifiers so far and the only team that remained unbeaten after five games, with 13 points, but Argentina could tie with the Paraguayans at the top of the table later Wednesday, should it beat Brazil in Belo Horizonte.
In a game played at La Paz's Hernando Siles stadium, at an altitude of over 3,600 metres, Joaquin Botero put the host ahead in the 23rd minute.
Ronald Garcia made things 2-0 in the 27th minute, while striker Roque Santa Cruz left the score 2-1 in the 66th minute. However, hope for the Paraguayans lasted only four minutes, until Botero scored his second goal of the night, to be followed by another from Marcelo Martins that made the score 4-1 five minutes later.
In the 82nd minute, Nelson Haedo Valdez scored for Paraguay, for the final 4-2.
Later Wednesday, Ecuador was hosting Colombia also at high altitude, in Quito, while Brazil was playing Argentina in the great regional football classic. On Thursday, Venezuela was hosting Chile.
On Tuesday, Uruguay thrashed new bottom side Peru 6-0 in Montevideo.
In South America's 10-team World Cup qualifiers, each side plays home and away with each of the other nine. The top four finishers win a place in the World Cup, with the fifth-place team facing a representative of the North, Central American and Caribbean region in a playoff.
