Soccer Football – South American Olympic Qualifiers – Alfonso Lopez Stadium, Bucaramanga, Colombia – Argentina v Brazil- February 9, 2020 Brazil players in action during a defensive wall REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez
BUCARAMANGA, Colombia (Reuters) – Reigning Olympic men’s football champions Brazil qualified for this summer’s tournament in Japan with a 3-0 win over Argentina on Sunday.
Brazil had to beat their arch rivals in the Colombia qualifier in order to join them as one of South America’s two representatives at the Tokyo Games.
Paulinho scored the opener after 11 minutes before Matheus Cunha added a second on the half-hour mark and a third early in the second half.
Argentina had already qualified for Tokyo after winning their first two matches in the round robin qualifying tournament. Uruguay lost out despite beating hosts Colombia 3-1 earlier on Sunday.
Brazil won the gold medal at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, giving them the last major international title to have eluded them.
Reporting by Andrew Downie; Editing by Peter Rutherford
