Youth and experience will meet this Friday, September 8 at Montevideo’s historic Centenario Stadium, where Uruguay and Chile will make their South American 2026 World Cup qualifier debuts.

Qualified for the last four editions of that tournament, La Celeste will look to add to their first three points on the road against the United States, Mexico and Canada in a scenario they turned into a strength against their next rival.

In their nine visits to Montevideo in the qualifiers, Chile barely added a single point out of a possible 27 and conceded 20 goals, while only managing to score six.

Therefore, La Roja will try to end their bad streak in order to achieve a place from the first day, which they failed to do in the last two editions of the World Cup.

Without a doubt, Marcelo Bielsa’s official debut as Uruguay coach will mark a game where the home side will face a revamped squad and without historic players, after the Argentine sidelined striker Luis Suárez.

The starters for the debut are Sergio Sergio Rochet; Nahitan Nández, Sebastián Cáceres, Matías Viña, Joaquín Piquerez; Federico Valverde (c), Manuel Ugarte, Nicolás de la Cruz; Facundo Pellistri, Darwin Núñez and Maxi Araújo.

On the other hand, the Chilean team is also undergoing a renovation in which its coach, Argentine Eduardo Berizzo, has already assessed several players during the eleven friendly matches that La Roja have played since June 2022.

But the fact is that several members of his ‘golden generation’ will again have minutes in the team led by the experienced Alexis Sánchez and Arturo Vidal, and they will be joined by other two-time American champions like Gary. Medel and Charles Aránguiz.

In addition, La Roja will have several of their new figures such as Juan Delgado, Gabriel Suazo, Víctor Méndez, Marcelino Núñez and Alexander Aravena.

La Roja takes the field with Brayan Cortés; Nayel Behssatou, Gary Medel, Guillermo Maripan and Gabriel Suazo; Marcelino Núñez, Erick Pulgar, Charles Aránguiz; Diego Valdes; Alexander Aravena and Ben Brereton.

Uruguay vs. Chile – live story

South American qualifiers 2026