And I’ll leave you to digest it at your leisure. Thanks for your company this evening, it’s been hugely enjoyable. See you again soon, and goodnight.
I’m going to reproduce in full another long read sent to me during the game from Peter Kozak, because it’s very interesting on the background to Chile’s success and what it means to the nation:
“Copa America has certainly hit Chile at a turbulent time. The political class are in deep crisis thanks to an on-going financial scandal (politicians receiving lucrative donations from the financial and mining sectors, and across the whole political spectrum, and not paying the corresponding taxes); State teachers have been on strike for the last month over government education reforms, and every week there’s at least one march through the city centre; the economy is slowing down, which could be for a number of domestic and international reasons too tedious to go into during a football match; and life for many people is rather tough: long working days, and for well over half the workforce, very low wages and often dismal employment conditions.
“So when the national team does good, as it has been during this tournament, it becomes a reason for great and well-lubricated celebration, bringing people together in bars and homes, and the overall excitement is palpable even halfway up a mountainside. And there’s also something about this particular generation of Chilean players that really warms people to them: they’ve been generous with their fame and fortunes, many (including the manager) investing in the working class neighbourhoods (some of which are extremely poor) where they grew up. So in that sense, these players are much more than just national sporting heroes, although that still won’t stop some of the fans trashing the centre of Santiago tonight after the win, and being chased off by riot police with water canon and tear gas. Such is life in modern-day Chile.”
Updated
Congratulations to Chile, and very well played to Peru. That was a brilliant game. Peru had started superbly and were dealt a huge setback when Zambrano was sent off. We’ll never know how important that was, but they stuck to the task well and were unlucky to go in 1-0 down at half-time to Vargas’ close-range effort. Chile went for the jugular after the break but there was a constant sense that the Peruvians weren’t out of this, and that was borne out when Medel turned a cross from the excellent Farfan into his own net. Had Peru steadied the ship a little longer, anything could have happened....but five minutes later they failed to make the ball stick on halfway, Vargas strode forward, and lashed in what might prove the headline goal of this tournament. That is how it stayed.
Excellent stuff though. Controversy aside – and we’ll hear plenty more about the red card – it was a proper football match between two sides full of intent and positivity. Let’s hope for more of the same in the final, where Chile will now face Argentina or Paraguay.
Updated
Full-time! Chile 2-1 Peru
Chile reach their first Copa America final since 1987!!
Updated
90+3 min: Peru finally get it out but then concede a free kick. Looks like they’ve had their chance.
90+1 min: That would have been that – if Vidal, controlling a left-to-right ball from Gutierrez, hadn’t seen his close-range shot well blocked by the legs of Gallese. Chile play the corner short, and keep it down near the flag.
90 min: Peru waste a deep free kick, to the frustration of their coaching staff. Chile break and Mena plays a sharp give and go with Aranguiz, but Gallese is out to smother. We’ll see three added minutes here.
89 min: Chile then try a little brinkmanship close to their own goal, popping a few risky-ish passes about from Bravo to – eventually – Aranguiz. They’ve done this the entertaining way, as always.
87 min: Just a sense that, now, Chile don’t quite know whether – or perhaps how – to stick or twist. Can Peru make one more chance?
86 min: Valdivia, who has done some lovely things today without being decisive, is replaced by Gutierrez for Chile.
85 min: Yotun chips it in nicely and five men are queuing up....including Pizarro, who can only glance it wide.
84 min: Guerrero tries to take on Medel, seems to have done, but then falls over and claims a foul on the edge of the area. I don’t think there was one, but now Peru do win a free kick 35 yards out after Vidal fouls Ballon....
Updated
@NickAmes82 So does Vargas goal count as a Thunderbastard? or is it too close to the goal?
— Mauricio (@reyes) June 30, 2015
Not my place to dish out accolades like that, but I’d be pushing for “yes, it does”.
81 min: Farfan is still going at one heck of a pace and Guerrero again plays him in towards the byline. This time his cross is intercepted before it can reach Pizarro.
Updated
80 min: Alexis Sanchez could – should? – seal it. Valdivia’s low ball into the area is firm, and Sanchez is arriving at speed, so he does well to bring it under his spell. He adjusts and, just eight yards out, fires just over when you’d expect him to hit the target. Chile attack again moments later and Vidal lashes a shot of his own just over, with his left foot.
78 min: Yotun shows his hand now, wriggling away on the left to cross towards Guerrero. Peru win a throw and Vargas take it long. It’s cleared as far as Advincula, whose ambitious volley trickles well wide.
Updated
76 min: Ramos makes a timely interception to stop Vargas playing Aranguiz in. Chile have six men committed in the attack I’m currently watching (which has now broken down). They will not relent.
74 min: Pizarro immediately shows what he’ll bring! He attacks yet another fine Farfan delivery at the near post but heads straight at Bravo. Can they come back again?
73 min: Here’s the veteran, Claudio Pizarro, for Peru. He replaces Carillo, who has an injury. They also bring on Yoshimar Yotun, a left winger, for Lobatun.
73 min: Vargas’ goal looks better and better the more it is replayed. Make sure you see it. If that’s the winner, it won’t ever be forgotten in Chile.
71 min: Advincula overlaps well and, again, crosses well – but Carillo’s header is harmless and loops up for Bravo. Then, at the other end, Vidal crosses for Vargas to aim a harmless header of his own, which goes far over.
Updated
70 min: Should have been 3-1. Vargas plays it through to Aranguiz, who is at a slight angle but is favourite to beat Gallese if he can control the ball properly....but his first touch is poor and the keeper can manoeuvre him far away from goal.
69 min: Peru come back again and do well to win a throw-in down by the right corner flag, but it’s cleared. Will Chile keep going for the throat here? Can they play it any other way? They really do operate on the very edge.
67 min: That is so gutting for Peru, who had worked so hard for their equaliser. But anyway – I really cannot speak highly enough about this as a game. It’s been enthralling, both as 11 v 11 and 11 v 10.
66 min: What a goal! What timing! What a noise in Santiago! The danger seemed to have passed after a Chile move broke down. Peru tried to break and the ball was played up towards halfway, I think to Guerrero. But he got his feet in a mess and the ball ended up with Vargas, who still had a huge amount to do. He took the ball forward and then, some 25 yards out in the inside-right position, arced a vicious, dipping, unstoppable strike into the far top corner that beat Gallese all ends up!
Goal! Chile 2-1 Peru (Vargas 65)
An absolute belter!
64 min: Eduardo Villanueva says “You would have loved the roar” in Lima. I can only imagine.
61 min: Well now! That was brilliant again from Farfan, absolutely caning Mena for place down the right as he sprinted onto a well-weighted pass by Guerrero. He put in a low, whipped, impossible ball towards Carillo that Medel had to stretch for.....but knocked it in to his own net, with Bravo committed! And you know what, the 10 men deserve it. Game on!
Updated
Goal! Chile 1-1 Peru (Medel o.g. 60)
They are very much in it!
Updated
59 min: Lobaton plays a shot free kick to Farfan, who crosses towards Ramos but Chile clear. You sense that Peru aren’t *quite* out of this yet and wonder whether, in situations like this, Chile’s all-action style doesn’t quite work in their own favour. Many sides would just calm this down, slow it, knock the ball about, remove the sting. But Chile are all about sting and have a tendency to leave themselves open.
Updated
56 min: Valdivia shoots from 20 yards, but Gallese dives upon us. And a Chile substitution that I missed a few minutes ago – Mena has replaced Albornoz on the left, which is no surprise.
Updated
54 min: But Peru do keep some good possession in the next minute or so....and Farfan has another good chance! They work it patiently to Advincula, who crosses brilliantly from the right and Farfan, who hit the post from a similar area in the first half, gets across his man and gets head onto ball! But the ball ends up in the arms of a grateful Bravo, and a replay shows it actually came off Farfan’s shoulder. Big chance though.
53 min: Carillo tries to do what Farfan was doing so well down the other flank in the first half – win a corner – but Isla sees to it that he won’t.
51 min: Sanchez picks the ball up inside the box from Vidal, but ends up dancing away from goal and going in search of a penalty that he doesn’t get. Chile have come out with a clear intent to put this to bed. Another goal would do it, I’m certain of that.
49 min: Pizarro now loops one in towards Vargas who spins and finishes sharply inside the far post. He’s given offside.....but he wasn’t! In fact, he was at least level with the last man. There may have been some small doubt for the goal itself, but this was a poor decision.
48 min: Valdivia tees up Aranguiz, who rattles in a 20-yarder that is charged down well.
48 min: An interesting Peruvian take on proceedings here from Eduardo Villanueva –
“Consensus around here (Peruvian people on FB) is that the referee is playing for Chile and that Zambrano was a fool, with plenty color added to that last one. As for the referee, it should have been a Bolivian, traditionally not very friendly with Chile (old grudges from the pacific War), but it got changed into this Venezuelan fellow, which sounds fishy.”
47 min: Chile made a half-time sub, David Pizarro replacing Marcelo Diaz in midfield.
Peeeeeeeeep!
Chile get us underway...
You wanted to hear about the Chilean mountains, Gerard Wall, and Peter Kozak has what is very much chapter and verse on the current pollution situation alluded to by Nathan. Read on, if you dare:
“I’m afraid to tell Gerard Wall that there’s no snow on the mountains behind Santiago, and I’m sitting half-way up one as I write. Chile’s in the midst of a major drought, and in the central part of the country, which is normally wet in June (mid-winter down here) there’s been no rain at all, in fact it’s been the driest June in 50 years. And it’s not just Santiago, the whole country is drying out, although if the medium-range forecast is true, and thanks to El Niño, it’ll be a wet July and possibly August. The negative impact on the Chilean capital of all this is the higher level of pollution: today there was a pre-emergency, factories were closed, many cars banned (according to their end digit) from circulating, and people ordered not to use wood-burning stoves, which around 10% of the city’s population use to heat their homes. And given that a traditional accompaniment to such matches as today’s are the meat-feast ‘asados’ (barbecues), tomorrow we may even tip into a full-blown emergency... but as the team’s winning, and is likely to remain that way, I don’t think a lot of people will be too downhearted...except the thousands suffering from respiratory ailments and filling the hospital A&Es.”
Updated
It is too late at night for me to get genuinely angry at Peter Oh for this:
“Peru a man down at the half? I hate to give it away now but I fully expect red hot Chile to pepper their goal in the second half and cruise into the final.”
Nathan Eckstein is writing a paper for his final class in Santiago, for which we wish him luck, and has a mountain update for Gerard Wall:
“Wanted to say that it’s been harder to see the Andes this time around because of pollution in the city.”
It’s not remotely Biased Journalism to say that it was a shame to the neutral that ex-QPR legend Vargas scored right then. But I guess we’ll now see to what extent the red card has Ruined The Spectacle.
Presented without comment.
Another press box dog. pic.twitter.com/gKehR0CLCg
— Jonathan Wilson (@jonawils) June 30, 2015
Chris in NY has a fair, politely-made point here: “Not to choke your inbox, but you could argue Aranguiz was trying to dummy that one into the net, no? What a wild one this is.”
I think Chris is right about Aranguiz’s intentions.
Charlie Robinson ponders: “At the end of the English domestic season, I thought I’d be looking forward to a well-deserved break from football. You know, watch a bit of cricket and relax. And what am I doing? Staying up late to watch this (admittedly entertaining) game, other Copa America matches, the women’s World Cup, and tomorrow I’m off to the Euro Under 21 final here in Prague. It really never ends, does it?”
When friends ask me “so do you get the summer off then?” (which happens more often than you could possibly expect) they tend to get a forcible kick.
Gerard Wall reminisces: “My first viewing of the Copa America, here in Ireland, was in 1991 on Super or Eurosport’s congenital brother or such some channel, in Chile. Brilliant wet, wintery, dour South America, not quite the jungle type we might expect. My endearing memory was not the football or the stadiums but the sight of the snow-capped Andes over and above every stadium. I haven’t seen a glimpse of this year’s Copa, is it still so ?”
From some of them, yes – but I’m not sure about this one. I’ll ask our man in the ground and see if we can get more of a visual.
Pheeewwwwwww. You could not avert your gaze from that for one second. Pulsating stuff and it’s only a shame that Peru’s Zambrano was sent off very controversially at a time when his team was really taking it to Chile and had just hit the post. Chile ramped things up after that, although Peru retained a threat on the counter. The timing of Vargas’ untidy goal, though, looks very important. The home side can now get inside, calm down a bit and do things exactly on their terms.
Half-time – Chile 1-0 Peru
Peruvians head straight for a long chat with the officials. I think we all need a breather.
45 min: Peru look to hit back and Ascues has a half-chance from a poorly-cleared free kick, but he drills his shot into the ground. Just before that, Vidal shot over as Chile looked to – presumably – make it safe.
42 min: It’s tougher for Peru now though. Sanchez receives a crossfield ball on the left, comes inside and chips in one of those teasing, curling balls that goalkeepers really don’t know how to deal with. Aranguiz – was he a shade offside? – goes for it and misses, which seems to distract Gallese, who is rooted as the ball rebounds off his far post. It pops straight to Vargas, who seems to have miscued but managed to get his feet lined up just in time to have a second bite, which he sends squirming slowly, slowly, agonisingly for the Peruvians, past the goalkeeper and into the bottom corner! Cue pandemonium – one of those wonderful, gutteral South American roars!
Updated
Goal! Chile 1-0 Peru (Vargas 42)
Scrappy, but they all count!
41 min: One thing’s for sure, you really cannot take your eyes off this and, much as Chile’s pressure is building and building, you can’t quite discount Peru, who still look sharp and willing on the counter.
40 min: Chris in NYC has a view on the red card –
“Just had one eye on the replay but it looked like after Zambrano scraped his studs down Aranguiz’ back he grabbed his shoulders from behind and threw him down. Aranguiz was a willing accomplice but the look of malice didn’t help Zambrano’s case. He seemed to have one thing on his mind from the start, a beer and a shower.”
Updated
38 min: Carillo concedes a corner, glancing a long pass out of play. Aranguiz takes it from the right and it’s headed away well, but the pressure continues and Valdivia’s latest clever ball can’t quite be tamed by Vargas...then Peru break at speed and suddenly Guerrero is eating up the ground down the left, cutting inside and laying across for Farfan......but Bravo is out superbly to block at his feet!
37 min: Farfan outswings it and, not for the first or second time, it’s a decent delivery that nobody from either side really attacks properly.
36 min: Farfan does brilliantly again, getting all the way to the byline and winning a corner from Rojas....
34 min: What a block from Advincula! The Peruvian right-back saves a certain goal. The increasingly involved Valdivia finds Sanchez, who nudges it on the Isla inside the area. His right-sided centre sees Vargas in six yards out with the goal at his mercy....until Advincula, from nowhere, hurls himself in front of the ball to block! The ball loops up to Gallese. But you wonder how 10-man Peru can survive here at the moment.
33 min: Farfan does well to relieve the pressure for Peru, holding the ball up and winning a dangerous-looking free kick. It comes to nothing, and you sense that Peru will need to make these moments count now.
32 min: Valdivia tries much the same, and the Peru left-back Vargas does much the same. Then Vidal improvises to toe in a really clever low cross from the right which Advincula has to stretch to scoop out for a corner ahead of Aranguiz. A foul is given against Vidal as soon as the flag kick is played in.
29 min: Smart defending from Vargas – the Peruvian Vargas – who gets in the Chilean Vargas’s way as he looks to latch onto a Valdivia loft over the top.
28 min: Valdivia goes close! He receives it from Sanchez just inside the area, sticks out a leg to control, turns and bends it a shade wide of Gallese’s left post. Chile’s tails are up.
28 min: Jamie Ayres has seen the red card tackle, and has seen what I saw – “That seemed a bit harsh. Not much he could have done other than teleporting his outstretched leg somewhere.”
27 min: Peru make a change, as you’d expect. Christian Ramos, a centre back, comes on for Cueva, who had been playing down the left. If the pattern had not necessarily been set earlier, it has now.
26 min: ...which Sanchez whips to the back post, causing Gallese to fist away. Valdivia meets it on the edge of the area and goes for the first-time lob, but it sails over.
Updated
25 min: Peru look to build but the ball runs under Carillo’s foot and out. I wonder how that red card – which I’d really need to see a couple more times – will affect them. It came from absolutely nothing and they’d looked so confident. Now Chile have a free kick just beyond the left corner of the area...
23 min: It took play some time to restart after that but, when it did, Vidal scuffed a free kick into the wall.
21 min: Oh dear, dear, dear. Zambrano booted a ball up the field midway inside his own half, and his follow-through caught Aranguiz studs-up, square in the back. Aranguiz went down in a heap. Zambrano been booked earlier but I think the referee, who reacted very quickly indeed, has given a straight red! Did he really mean to do that? “Leaving your foot in” is one thing but I think his momentum from lacing that ball away simply took his boot into Aranguiz. We’ll be hearing more about that....but the fact is that Peru, who had started so well, are now without one of their key defenders and are a man down. Let’s hope that has not ruined the game.
Updated
Red card! Zambrano sent off for Peru! (20)
Now that changes things.
19 min: Peru threaten again, winning a free kick on the right. Farfan crosses but it’s too close to Bravo this time. Chile’s early fire has, for now, been very well dulled.
18 min: Close again from Peru! It’s the man I showed you earlier, Lobaton! Guerrero shows superb pace and strength down the left, checks inside and lays back to Lobaton, whose outside-of-the-boot smash from 25 yards glances off Rojas and deflects into the side netting! From Cueva’s corner, Bravo is in no man’s land but Chile survive. Really good signs from Peru at the moment.
Updated
16 min: Chile left-back Albornoz, whose defending has not been at all good so far, has his pocket picked by Farfan and has to recover quickly to block his attempted cross for another Peru corner. That’s swung in by Farfan again, and it’s not bad but again nobody can get their head to it.
14 min: Super tempo to this game already. Peru look sharp and spiky; Chile look as intense as you’d expect.
13 min: Sanchez tries to turn into the area but Advincula sees him off robustly. Then Peru again counter ever so quickly, Guerrero springing Farfan down the right. He wins a corner, which is goes through everyone.
Updated
11 min: Proof there of Peru’s danger if Chile do get over-eager. That chance stemmed from a raking ball that bypassed Albornoz, found Carillo on the right, and his overhit ball was salvaged on the other side. But now, dangerous free-kick to Chile after a foul on Valdivia....comes to nothing though, as Vidal heads off target.
9 min: And counter they do! Peru hit the post! It’s a superb cross from the left – might have been from Guerrero – and Farfan gets above Rojas to plant a firm header onto Bravo’s right upright! So, so close to the dream start!
Updated
8 min: Already, though, Chile mixing things up with some short passing followed by early balls looking to catch the Peruvians out in behind. The pattern has been set here – Peru will be counterattacking, at best.
7 min: First sighting of Alexis Sanchez as he scampers onto a ball down the right and is thwarted by Zambrano, who is having a busy start. Sanchez flops over dramatically– no foul but there appears to be some reaction from Zambrano, who is booked.
Updated
4 min: But there are some afters...errr...after the corner! Vidal gets rather miffed at Zambrano’s attempt to shield the ball out of play, barges him and then seems to flick a hand up onto his face. Seen players punished for less. Both players are warned but Vidal really needs to tone it down here, already.
3 min: Opportunity for Vargas! He’s played through by a delightful ball from – I think – Albornoz and for a second it seems as if he’s in the clear, but the centre-back Ascues blocks really well for a corner that comes to nought.
2 min: But now Isla bounds down the right for Chile and hooks in a cross from the byline. It’s headed away and Valdivia plays it back in, but there’s an offside.
1 min: Peru’s front two signal some early intent to press like they’re Chileans, chasing Albornoz down and briefly winning the ball on the right.
Peeeeeeeeeep! Here we go.
The teams have huddled and now Peru, in their white and diagonally-red-striped shirts that scream “1978 WORLD CUP!!” get us underway. They will kick from left to right.
This is the flag:
Impressive pic.twitter.com/og7xRJYugG
— Miguel Delaney (@MiguelDelaney) June 29, 2015
The Chilean anthem is being belted out with a ferocity that matches the team’s play. A huge national flag is unfurled behind one of end of the ground. Everybody is absolutely keyed up for this.
Tell you what, there’s one heck of a racket coming out of that stadium already. Thousands of Lone Stars are flying high, and this both looks and sounds like a Proper Football Night as the teams walk out to a deafening din.
An email from Ruth Purdue: “Am I the only one who loves watching the crazy directness of Chile? They are ridiculously quick and suicidal sometimes. If only it was always like this…but then it wouldn’t be as excellent now would it?”
No Ruth, you certainly aren’t. And yes, all beauty must be impermanent.
What else....well, Peru may miss Pizarro, who I believe has a slight knock, from their starting XI but they can call upon another golden oldie. Carlos Lobaton is 35, plays for Sporting Cristal in his home country and will certainly cause a few glasses to be clinked if he does more of these (the second one is well worth your time...):
Expect Chile to start like thunder here. Watching Sanchez, Vargas, Valdivia, Vidal and Aranguiz tear into teams is like watching football being played in a washing machine.
Here’s what Our Man Wilson has gone and got himself into this evening:
Above the memorial, a solid block of red. pic.twitter.com/a7yUynyC01
— Jonathan Wilson (@jonawils) June 29, 2015
Mike MacKenzie is rooting for the underdog, and doesn’t care who knows it:
“It would be great to see a Peru - Paraguay final but that still seems rather fanciful. More likely it will be Argentina vs the hosts. In that case, I hope Messi and friends win to help silence the ‘what has he won with his country’ critics.”
The teams are in
Chile: Bravo; Isla, Medel, Rojas, Albornoz; Díaz, Aránguiz, Vidal; Valdivia; Sánchez, Vargas
Peru: Gallese; Advíncula, Zambrano, Ascues, Vargas; Farfán, Ballón, Lobatón, Cueva; Carrillo, Guerrero
Rojas in for Jara, who is of course suspended, for Chile. Miiko Albornoz also replaces Eugenio Mena. Pizarro, despite my big-up, does not start this one for Peru. In comes Andre Carillo.
I’ll let you absorb/discuss/Wiki these for a few minutes and then we’ll talk more. What do you expect to see tonight? Write me an email, or a tweet, at the addresses above.
Updated
Of course, the Copa America isn’t all about these two. There’s another poor Brazil failure to rake over, too, and who better to do that than our man in Chile, Jonathan Wilson? This is very good:
It’s been a long time since the notion of jogo bonito was anything other than an empty marketing slogan. The beauty has left the Brazilian game. The obsession with running and physicality that first developed – belatedly – as a response to a first-round exit in the 1966 World Cup has become dogma. The dictatorship that took power in Brazil in 1964 imposed technocrats in all walks of life: it was an article of faith that everything could be measured and analysed. That is why a military PT instructor, captain Cláudio Coutinho, worked with the team at the 1974 World Cup and was the coach in 1978. The 80s and Telê Santana brought a brief reflowering of the old way, a reignition of the myth, but since then the drift into pragmatism has been relentless.
And this is Chile 1-0 Uruguay. So that’s you prepped:
Want some highlights? I’ve got highlights. These are from Bolivia 1-3 Peru in the quarters. Turn the sound up:
Up front alongside Guerreiro for Peru should be Claudio Pizarro. Once of Chelsea, now 36 and still, quite sweetly, playing for Bayern Munich himself. The ageless Pizarro, captain and talisman of this Peru team, is another reason for not discounting them. In this tournament, of all tournaments, street smarts really can get you all the way.
Also in the Peru team should be Schalke 04’s always-lively-but-never-quite-good-enough-for-one-of-the-biggest-clubs winger, Jefferson Farfan. So it’s safe to say Peru are a danger. Teams in full when I get them.
Nolberto Solano, now Peru’s assistant manager, knows exactly what’s at stake.
“We can lose against anyone, but less so against Chile because it is a Clásico,” he bawls in this handy preview of tonight’s affair by my colleague Gerard Meagher.
Hello!
Isn’t this a nice Monday night treat? Monday night, when you sort-of want to go out and go something interesting but you also sort-of mustn’t because everyone says “it’s Monday” and that just wouldn’t do, apparently. Last time I went out on a Monday night was to a pub quiz in...I think...Barnet a couple of weeks ago. Just the four teams, cos it was a Monday after all. Still didn’t come close to winning. Cool story.
But tonight is very much a win, because the pleasure of taking you through Chile v Peru is mine and the size of the prize at stake for these two is pretty huge: a place in the Copa America final against either Argentina or Paraguay. And what’s more, it’s a big, big derby – the Clásico del Pacifico, which I think translates itself – and the outcome of this one will be writ large in history for time immemorial.
The hosts should win this, right? Right. They’ve generally been the urgent, buzzy, and physically extraordinary pests we saw at the World Cup last year and have scored 11 goals in their four games so far. A 5-0 win over Bolivia was nice but they showed admirable stoicism in sticking with Uruguay, dogged and defensive as you’d expect, in their quarter-final and winning it with a late Mauricio Isla goal. Big names like Vidal, Vargas, Sanchez, Aranguiz and Medel all have goals to their name and Jorge Sampaoli’s side have ticked along pretty nicely.
Which is all the more remarkable given Vidal’s indiscretions of earlier in the competition, an unseemly tale now added to by the highly inappropriate intervention that sees Gonzalo Jara miss tonight’s game. They’re not shooting themselves in the foot by halves, the Chileans, but it seems to be doing them little harm.
Will their march to a fifth Copa America final – and what would, incredibly, be their first-ever title if all went swimmingly – be halted by a vibrant Peru? Well, why not? The Peruvians may no longer be seen on the global stage – they last reached the World Cup in 1982 – but they have some recent form at this level, coming third in 2011, and fancy going a step further this time. Peru beat Venezuela, drew with Colombia and narrowly lost to Brazil in the group stage; Bolivia were a favourable last-eight draw, sure, but the way in which Peru put them to the sword with a hat-trick from ex-Bayern Munich man Pablo Guerrero bodes well and a positive approach is expected from Ricardo Gareca’s side tonight.
The Chile manager, Jorge Sampaoli, is saying all the right things pre-match. He expects a tough game and, although his team are rightly favourites, it should be a good one in front of a fervent crowd in Santiago. Kick-off is at 00.30 UK time – don’t move a muscle.
Nick will be here soon enough.
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