Copa America 2019: Red-hot Chile target three-peat as Peru need to adopt attacking approach

Andy West 22:09 02/07/2019
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  • Reigning Copa America champions Chile will aim to take the next step in their bid to retain the trophy as they face outsiders Peru in Wednesday night’s semi-final in Porto Alegre.

    Both teams won through to the last four thanks to penalty shootout victories in the quarter-finals, with Chile overcoming Colombia while Peru stunned Uruguay.

    But the manner of their overall performances was very different, and Chile are red-hot favourites heading into the encounter. And their quest to make history kicks off our key talking points ahead of the action.

    CHILE ON TRACK FOR HISTORIC THREE-PEAT?

    Alexis Sanchez

    For a relatively small country (population 17 million) surrounded by far more powerful footballing gargantuans, Chile’s success in winning back to back Copa Americas in 2015 and 2016 was a truly remarkable achievement – especially as the country had never previously won any major honours at all.

    Now, though, La Roja are aiming to rewrite the history books once more by claiming the continental crown for the third successive occasion, something that has only previously been achieved by Argentina between 1945 and 1947.

    The route to glory has seemingly been cleared for Chile, who have been spared the danger of Uruguay thanks to Peru’s penalty shootout victory in Saturday’s quarter-final, and the team powered by veteran former title winners Gary Medel, Arturo Vidal and Alexis Sanchez are regarded as major favourites to advance to the final.

    Chile’s confident performance against Colombia in the quarter-final could easily have yielded victory inside 90 minutes before their eventual shootout success, and they have the extra assurance of winning seven of their last eight competitive games against Peru in a sequence dating back to 2004. So history appears to be on Chile’s side…but will technology be?

    VAR TO TAKE CENTRE STAGE AGAIN?

    Chile were frustrated by VAR, while Peru were grateful, in the previous round.

    Chile were frustrated by VAR, while Peru were grateful, in the previous round.

    To the disdain of traditionalists, VAR played a major role in the quarter-final ties for both teams at opposite ends of the fortune spectrum.

    Chile had goals disallowed by Charles Aranguiz (offside) and Arturo Vidal (handball), while Peru benefitted from no less than three Uruguayan goals being ruled out for offside before the penalty shootout.

    Sadly, VAR is likely to be an active participant in this semi-final contest because referees throughout the competition have been unanimously eager to seek video advice, with regular stoppages for VAR reviews contributing to the frustratingly stop-start nature of the action during the quarter-finals as well as providing mammoth injury time additions to the action.

    In VAR’s defence, those five quarter-final goals involving Chile and Peru were all correctly disallowed, so it is clear that technology is serving its primary purpose of getting more decisions right.

    But the delays to ensure that justice is served have simply been too long, and football’s authorities need to find a way of making sure VAR can act more speedily in order to avoid mass opposition as its implementation grows around the world.

    In the short-term, though, Chile will just be hoping they can score a goal without technology getting in the way.

    CAN FLORES FIRE PERU?

    uruguay

    VAR or no VAR, however, a big change for the semi-finals is that teams will be granted an additional half-hour to find a winning goal before the dreaded penalty shootout thanks to the return of extra time, which was not used in the previous round.

    On the face of it, that looks like bad news for Peru, who have somehow managed to sneak their way into the semis despite only scoring in one of their four games so far. They lost 5-0 against Brazil and drew 0-0 against both Venezuela and Uruguay, only managing to breach the defences of Bolivia in a 3-1 group stage victory.

    Peru’s best chance of advancing to the final, on that evidence, will probably be holding out for another shootout following a goalless draw. But in mathematical terms that task is now 33 per cent more difficult with the addition of extra time if required, so Peru should probably now consider a slightly more expansive approach in the hope of scoring a goal or two.

    On the evidence of the last eight meeting with Uruguay, perhaps their most likely route of getting on the scoresheet will be the pace and trickery of left winger Edison Flores, who made headlines for scoring the winning goal in the shootout and was also Peru’s most dangerous attacker during the 90 minutes.

    If Peru need to break with their recent tradition and actually score a goal, Flores could be their best bet to provide it.

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