Soccer-Chilean football restarts with shock win for bottom club

Seven second division games are scheduled for the same days. Home side Colo Colo went ahead in each half, but the league's bottom club pulled level each time and Enzo Gutierrez got his second of the afternoon and Santiago's third with 18 minutes left.

Chile became the latest South American nation to restart its COVID-hit football programme on Saturday, when bottom club Santiago Wanderers got the schedule back under way with a shock 3-2 win over Colo Colo. The restart, which came more than five months after professional sports were halted due to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, means that Argentina and Colombia are the only major leagues on the continent still at a halt.

Brazil, where the COVID-19 death toll is higher than anywhere outside the United States, restarted games in Rio de Janeiro in June before Uruguay, Paraguay and Peru followed suit in recent weeks. Three games were due to take place behind closed doors in Chile on Saturday with another four eighth-round games being played on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Seven second division games are scheduled for the same days.

Home side Colo Colo went ahead in each half, but the league's bottom club pulled level each time and Enzo Gutierrez got his second of the afternoon and Santiago's third with 18 minutes left. Unbeaten Universidad Catolica lead the table with 19 points from seven games and play Union Espanola later on Saturday. (Writing by Andrew Downie Editing by Ian Chadband)