RIO DE JANEIRO -- A stunning goal by Ariel Ortega and an injury-time header by defender Roque Junior gave Argentina and Brazil important wins in the World Cup qualifiers on Wednesday.

Ortega's effort, worthy of Diego Maradona at his best, set Argentina on the way to a 2-0 win in Chile and kept them top of the South America qualifying tournament.

Roque Junior's 92 minute goal gave Brazil a 1-0 win over Colombia in Sao Paulo, kept them in second place and provided coach Emerson Leao a win on his debut -- for which he had been banned for sitting on the team bench.

Wednesday's other games saw Paraguay hammer hapless Peru 5-1 at home, goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert again among the scorers, Ecuador win 2-1 in Venezuela and Uruguay hold out for a valuable point away to Bolivia at high altitude.

Argentina (25 points), Brazil and Paraguay (both 22) now look almost certain to reach Japan and South Korea.

The other places appear to be between Ecuador (16), Uruguay and Colombia (both 15). Chile (10) are now five points adrift, followed by Bolivia (9), Peru (8) and minnows Venezuela (3). The top four qualify automatically and the fifth plays off against the Oceania winners.

Ortega inspired Argentina on a night when they were missing a number of top players, including Gabriel Batistuta, Hernon Crespo and Javier Zanetti, through injury.

In the 27th minute, he burst through the middle of the Chilean defender and poked the ball under goalkeeper Nelson Tapia to score a memorable goal.

Ortega also set up the second for Claudio Husain in injury, condeming an ineffective Chile to their third successive defeat.

Brazil struggled to break down a well-organized Colombia team who made Leao, serving a 20-day touchline ban, suffer in much the same way as his sacked predecessor Wanderley Luxemburgo.

Just as in Luxemburgo's days, Brazil were lethargic and unimaginative, the crowd got on their backs in the second half and World Player of the Year Rivaldo produced another below par performance for his country.

Colombia, who had Jairo Castillo sent off for retaliation, were agonisingly close to a point until the second minute of injury time, when Roque Junior rose above their defence to head in from a corner.

Paraguay goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert showed both sides of his character against Peru, setting up one goal and scoring another only to spoil the evening with grotesquely unsporting behavior.

Chilavert provided the 50 meter free kick from which Jose Cardozo scored Paraguay's third just before halftime and completed their win with an 84th minute penalty, his second goal of the qualifiers.

He celebrated by marching upto rival goalkeeper Oscar Ibanez and insulting him, a piece of ungentlemanly conduct which went unpunished by the referee.

Peru, who have dropped several European-based players, were left to reflect on a night when absolutely everything went wrong.

In the first half, they hit the post twice and had a goal disallowed in the first half, only to find themselves trailing 3-0 after a mixture of bad luck and bad defending at their own end.

Roque Santa Cruz opened the scoring from close range after being played onside by injured defender Juan Pajuelo, who was lying prostrate following a collision in Paraguay's previous attack.

Ten minutes later, Ibanez dropped an easy cross at the feet of team-mate Jose del Solar, who tapped the ball into his own goal.

Just before halftime, Chilavert's free kick from just inside his own half found Cardozo alone with time to add Paraguay's third. Carlos Paredes and Chilavert completed the rout in the second half.

Ecuador stayed on course for a first ever World Cup appearance when they picked up the first away points of their campaign, helped by more poor defending from the competition's leakiest defense.

Striker Ivan Kaviedes put Ecuador ahead in the fourth minute after being left all alone by the Venezuela defence following a free kick. Then a weak shot by Wellington Sanchez slipped through the arms of Venezuela goalkeeper Gilberto Angelucci to increase Ecuador's lead.

Uruguay's point was a reward for their painstaking preparations for the match in La Paz at 3,600 metres above sea level. They picked a squad almost exclusively of home-based players and spent three weeks in the Andean nation acclimatizing at an estimated cost of $150,000.

Even so, they were not fully able to adapt to conditions which are unique in international football and were largely indebted to a heroic display by goalkeeper Fabian Carini.

Uruguay coach Daniel Passarella said his players had only managed to complete 30 percent of the adaptation process.

"For the remaining 70 percent, you would have to spend seven or eight months training here," he claimed.