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#4 Chile
All the talk before the final round of matches in South America revolved around the realistic possibility of Lionel Messi and Argentina missing the World Cup. The two-time World Champions were in danger of missing the tournament for the first time since 1970, and as a finalist of the last World Cup nevertheless.
The Barcelona superstar took the matters into his own hands and scored a hat-trick in a 3-1 away win in Ecuador. They hadn't won there since 2001.The three points gained from that match pushed Argentina from 6th place all the way up to 3rd.
Chile was one of the sides Argentina leapfrogged, and they fell to 6th to miss out on the World Cup. This, after winning the last two Copa Americas. Alexis Sanchez and Co. started the qualifiers with an impressive 2-0 win over Brazil, but they had a miserable ending with four losses in the final six fixtures.
Brazil got their revenge in the final match with a 3-0 win, scoring all goals in the second half. The heavy defeat dragged Chile's goal difference into negative and Peru, who had a goal difference of +1, got the playoff spot to play New Zealand.
Chile held the 4th place in FIFA rankings until July this year. They played at the Confederations Cup final at the start of July, losing only 1-0 to Germany. But that turned out to be the start of their downfall, and now, ranked 9th in the FIFA World Rankings, Chile will be the highest ranked nation to miss the World Cup.
