At 6:00 Beijing time on January 29, the 15th round of the 2022 Qatar World Cup Qualifier South American Group Stage, Venezuela won 4-1 at home to visiting Bolivia, ending the team's three consecutive defeats in the World Preliminary Tournament. Former Dalian player Long Dong scored a hat-trick in the game, and Venezuelan new coach Peckerman made his debut.
In the 24th minute of the first half, Rondon received a cross from his teammate and broke the deadlock on the field. 10 minutes later, a cold arrow in the Rondon penalty area broke the goal to extend the score to 2-0. In the 37th minute, Bruno Miranda's header helped Bolivia pull back a city. In the 54th minute, Davin Marches snatched the ball from the Bolivian goalkeeper's foot and easily hit the empty goal, making the score 3-1. In the 66th minute, Rondon took a direct shot to make the score 4-1, and after the goal, Rondon was replaced, and the 4-1 score was maintained until the end.
After the game, Long Dong, who scored a hat-trick, was interviewed by the media. Speaking about the victory of this game, Rondon said that thanks to all those who supported us, the team has experienced ups and downs before, including the Copa America played last year. It's a pleasure to win at home today, we have to be united, just like we did today, everyone is full of morale, do a good job of attack and defense, and go down to earth. He also mentioned the current situation at Everton, which is what football is, and unfortunately, Benitez was just fired a few weeks ago and I didn't get a chance to play in the league. But that's football, I scored 3 goals today and I'm going to dedicate the goals to my family.
Rondon became the second Venezuelan to score a hat-trick in the World Cup qualifiers, and the third player to "wear a hat" in the South American zone of the World Cup after Brazil's Neymar and Argentina's Messi. The last time Rondon scored three goals in a single game in his career was in the 2019 Kirin Cup, where Venezuela also beat Japan 4-1.
At the end of the 15 rounds, in the current South American standings, Venezuela ranks last with 10 points, a gap of 9 points with Uruguay in fifth place, and the final three rounds of qualifying are still left. According to the rules, there are a total of 4.5 qualifying places in the South American region, of which the top four will directly qualify for the World Cup, the fifth place will be play-offs for other continental teams, and Venezuela's promotion to the World Cup is only theoretically possible.
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