Lionel Messi continued his stellar form in the World Cup Qualifiers, as Uruguay also stayed consistent - losing their third-straight game.
In Santiago, Messi opened the scoring for the Argentines in a 2-1 win over Chile, with Gonzalo Higuain netting the other goal for the table toppers. Felipe Guttierrez scored the lone goal for the home side late on on the second half.
After Angel Di Maria missed a comfortable chance, early in the game, Messi, who had made a brilliant through pass for the former to try and score, came to the fore in the 28th minute.
The Barcelona superstar timed his run perfectly to get on the end of Fernando Gago's pass, before creating space for himself to slot the ball past goalkeeper Miguel Pinto.
Higuain made it 2-0 three minutes later. The Real Madrid striker latches onto a brilliant cross-field ball from Di Maria, before cutting in from the right onto his left foot to curl one into the corner of the net.
Guttierrez pulled one back in stoppage time, but it was too little too late for the Chileans.
In La Paz, Bolivia thrashed a hapless Uruguay 4-1. Carlos Suacedo scored a hat-trick with Gaulberto Majica netting the fourth to make it 4-0. Luis Suarez scored the consolation goal for Uruguay, who are now facing serious problems, after the defeat pushed them down to fifth in the table; the fifth-placed team will go into a playoff.
Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez refused to make excuses, despite his team missing three of their first-choice defenders - Diego Godin, Martin Caceres and Diego Lugano -- through suspension.
"Bolivia were very good and deserved to win," Tabarez said. "We have to get out of this situation and we need to work hard on the solution, because obviously things are not good for us at the moment, it is not something we are used to for we have enjoyed some great moments together.
"What we need to do now is to work on ensuring we make the finals by being in the top five (the fifth placed team go into a play-off) when qualifying is over."
The win gave Bolivia eight points from seven games, and Xabier Azkargorta was hopeful the win would spur them onto qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. "This victory opens up the possibility of qualifying," he said.
"There are 21 points still available to us. We will fight as hard as we can for those points, we will battle all the way and we will endeavor to get better and better than we have been to succeed."
The fourth place, the final spot which ensures automatic qualification, was taken by Venezuela after their 1-1 home draw against Ecuador.
