It was night of thrills and spills in the South American World Cup qualifying group.The fate of virtually every team, barring Tite's brilliant Brazil side, was up in the air, with Argentina, Colombia, Peru and Chile all vying for automatic passage to the Russian showpiece.Alexis Sanchez's side faced the toughest task of all as they faced the prospect of having to win in Brazil in order to even make the play-offs.Despite already sealing their passage to the finals, the Selecao fielded an incredibly strong team which included the frightening trio of Neymar, Philippe Coutinho and Gabriel Jesus.In the end they were too strong for the Copa America champions, winning 3-0 and deservedly so.Manchester City's Gabriel Jesus bagged a brace and Barcelona new boy Paulinho also found the back of the net.In truth, Chile were outplayed, but they still had a chance of qualifying if one of Peru or Colombia failed to win.Argentina already sealed their passage with a brilliant 3-1 win in Ecuador courtesy of a certain Lionel Messi.James Rodriguez had given the visitors the lead early in the second half and approaching the final 15 minutes, it looked as though Chile would make it through by default.Then, in the 76th minute, the Peruvians were level, courtesy of a free-kick from Paolo Guerrero, which meant that both teams would make it through.What followed was something pretty disgraceful, with both teams aware of the situation and simply passing the ball around back.Just look at the video below.

VIDEO

Ouch, memories of that famous game between Germany and Austria at Euro 2008 when both teams knew a draw would ensure them of a place in the next round.

Fans watching the game reacted with very mixed opinion to what was happening on the pitch.

TWITTER REACTS

It's the ultimate act of gamesmanship and Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez felt the brute force of it, as of course, did the rest of his Chilean teammates.

Amazingly though, this was not the only controversial moment that cost them a place at the World Cup, with people on Twitter bringing up something incredibly interesting.

CHILE'S COMPLAINT

In the earlier stages of qualifying, after drawing 0-0 against Bolivia, Chile complained that their opponents had fielded an ineligible player.

Bolivia had also beaten Peru 2-0, but due to the fact they were found guilty, both results were changed to 3-0 victories.

Had Chile not complained and let the original scores stand, they'd be on their way to Russia. The definition of irony.