Brazil complained of hostile treatment in Venezuela and three players were sent off in Ecuador's win over Chile on Sunday to complete a stormy weekend in South American World Cup qualifying. The incidents followed Saturday's vicious River Plate derby in which Argentina coach Alfio Basile said his team had been given a kicking by opponents Uruguay in their 2-1 win. Kaka, playing his first international for 11 months, scored after only six minutes to set Brazil on the way to a 4-0 win in San Cristobal, restoring normal service after their shock 2-0 friendly defeat by Venezuela in June. Robinho added two more and Adriano completed the scoring with his first international goal since the 2006 World Cup as Brazil overcame what coach Dunga said was a hostile reception. “When we play away from home in the World Cup qualifiers, the whole country unites to try and make things as difficult as possible for Brazil,” Dunga told reporters after their 18th win in 19 matches against Venezuela. “They left us stuck in the plane for an hour and a half. Inside the hotel, we also had numerous difficulties during the night.” Ecuador striker Christian Benitez scored the only goal in Quito as his team beat nine-man Chile 1-0 to revive their hopes of qualifying for the 2010 tournament in South Africa. Benitez had stirred up the rivalry before the game by describing Chile's attack as weak. The visitors, who made their last finals appearance in 1998, were in trouble from the 20th minute when defender Ismael Fuentes was sent off for a late tackle on Joffre Guerron. Ecuador had Luis Antonio Valencia dismissed in the 76th minute for a studs-up challenge and he was followed by Chile defender Gonzalo Jara in the 83rd minute for a second bookable offense. The weekend's games completed the first half of the marathon 18-match South American campaign. The top four teams qualify directly for South Africa and the fifth plays off against the fourth side from the CONCACAF region. Paraguay leads with 20 points, followed by Brazil and Argentina on 16. The trio already look as if they will comfortably fill three of the direct places. Chile (13), Uruguay and Ecuador (12 each) and Colombia (10) appear to be fighting for the remaining spots. Bolivia (eight), Venezuela and Peru (seven each) look to be out of the running. FA chief wants travel ban for Azzurri fans Italy fans should be stopped from supporting the world champion abroad after minor trouble during its 0-0 draw in Bulgaria, the head of the Italian football association said on Monday. A group of Italy fans made fascist salutes and threw bottles at Bulgaria supporters before Saturday's World Cup Group Eight qualifying match in Sofia. Three supporters were also arrested for burning a Bulgarian flag. “We will not ask for any more tickets for Italy matches abroad,” Giancarlo Abete told Radio Anch'io. The hard line, which must be agreed with the government, follows several years of crowd trouble within Italy which has led to heavy restrictions on away travel for league matches. “We are not talking about fans but people who want to misbehave and damage the image of football and our country. The association and the interior ministry have the first and last names of people who had tickets.” Italy partly missed out on holding the Euro 2012 championship because of their hooligan problem but Abete said not every fan was culpable. – Reuters __
