Argentina secured their spot within the Copa America quarterfinals with a dramatic 1-0 victory over Chile on Tuesday, because of a late strike from Lautaro Martinez.
The defending champions needed to wait till the 88th minute for the breakthrough.
Following a Lionel Messi nook, Giovani Lo Celso’s shot was blocked by Chile’s goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, however Martinez pounced on the rebound to seal the win.
The purpose stood after a prolonged VAR assessment for offside.
Argentina tops the group with six factors after two matches, with Canada in second on three following their 1-0 win over Peru earlier on Tuesday. Chile and Peru have one level every.
“These matches are always like this. We have to continue in the same way, treating the matches in this way, as they are all going to be complicated,” Martinez advised TyC Sports.
“Everything was tight, they set up lines of five at times … but we are happy that at the end of the day, we ended up taking the three points, which is what we wanted to start with.”
The loss prolonged Chile’s winless streak towards Argentina within the Copa America to 30 matches.
Chile has gained the Copa twice however has by no means crushed Argentina in regulation time on the match, getting the higher of them on penalties within the closing of the 2015 and 2016 editions.
There was little to separate the 2 in a cautious opening spell at MetLife Stadium, however as soon as Argentina bought going it shortly was a one-sided contest.
Julian Alvarez and Nicolas Gonzalez examined keeper Bravo with tame efforts, whereas Rodrigo de Paul smashed a swerving right-foot effort simply over the crossbar.
Captain Messi, who performed a task in each of Argentina’s targets of their opening win over Canada, was as soon as once more at his good finest and practically opened the scoring within the thirty sixth minute with a robust low drive that hit the submit.
Argentina saved up the stress within the second half, and Alexis Mac Allister was unable to attach with a pinpoint free kick from Messi to spurn a gilt-edged alternative.
Rodrigo Echeverria recorded Chile’s first shot of the match within the 72nd minute, a robust strike from a distance that was saved out by Emiliano Martinez.
The Argentine goalkeeper, who barely had something to do for over an hour, discovered himself known as into motion twice extra over the subsequent couple of minutes, maintaining out efforts from Echeverria and Marcelino Nunez.
Just because it appeared just like the 15-time Copa America champions could be made to rue their missed possibilities, substitute Martinez’s purpose ensured victory and a top-two spot within the group.
The defending champions had the possibility to kill the sport off in stoppage time with a two-on-one break, however Martinez fired a close-range shot straight at Bravo.
“We have a tough group, very evenly matched. We had chances to score,” Bravo stated. “The next opponent is going to be tough like these two we’ve had.”
In the group’s closing fixtures on Saturday, Argentina performs Peru in Miami whereas Chile takes on Canada in Orlando.
Source: www.dailysabah.com