Copa America 2024: Group A Recaps - Argentina Clinches Quarterfinals While Peru Sees Red in Loss to Canada
Argentina needed almost all ninety minutes of regulation to breakthrough against Chile while Canada notched their first win of the Jesse Marsch era.
Despite a dominant showing, Argentina needed eighty-eight minutes to finally get one past the ageless Claudio Bravo as substitute Lautaro Martinez finished a rebound for the winner at the end of regulation as La Albiceleste became the first team to book a quarterfinal spot at Copa America 2024.
ARGENTINA 1, CHILE 0
It took about twenty minutes for Argentina to start applying pressure to Chile, but once they started it was a full-on siege towards Bravo’s net. Julian Alvarez had a great chance in the 22nd, but could not get enough power behind a cutback pass from Nicholas Gonzalez and Bravo made the first of his eight saves on the night.
Lionel Messi came inches away in the 35th, when his long-range effort kissed off the wrong side of the post. Two minutes later it was a near disaster for Chile when midfielder Erick Pulgar cleared a ball out of bounds dangerously close to his own near post.
The second half was all Argentina, as a combination of set pieces and second-chance shots continued the siege on Bravo. One of the best sequences was a corner punched away by Bravo and the follow-up shot deflecting out of bounds but very clearly off the hand of a Chile defender turning away from the ball, but no penalty was awarded.
In the 76th, Chile had their best play of the night, when a nifty backheel sprung fullback Mauricio Isla who fired in an early cross. The ball was trapped down awkwardly by Argentina, and Chile’s Rodrigo Echeverria hammered a one-time shot off the loose ball only to see Emiliano Martinez (3 saves) save and cover the effort.
Following multiple corners, and Bravo tipping a Messi Olimpico attempt over the bar on the previous set piece, Argentina found their breakthrough. The initial corner found its way goalbound, where Giovanni Lo Celso at the near post tried unsuccessfully to stuff the ball home on the doorstep only to be denied by Bravo. The rebound however fell to Lautaro Martinez who essentially had a wide-open net to finish into, ending the stubborn resistance and heroics of Bravo.
CANADA 1, PERU 0
already covered this recap, so I’m just going to offer some quick analysis. The first half was bad, like on par with England and everyone at the Euros that played at 3pm yesterday bad. Peru were lucky to be with 11 men at the half midfielder Marcos Lopez headbutted Canada’s Alistair Johnson during a stoppage near the sideline.
The actual red card to Miguel Araujo is a no-doubter. Yes I know he plays the ball, but does so very recklessly after a heavy touch and was fully airborne when he went through Jacob Shaffelburg shin high. VAR is correct to upgrade that from yellow to red and we’ll see if CONEMBOL dispenses any supplemental punishment to Lopez.
But it’s a good win for Canada regardless of the circumstances but I do think they need to be more aggressive going forward and certainly played better against Argentina despite the loss.
GROUP OVERVIEW
Argentina to the surprise of no one are already into the knockouts but the second spot behind them is not locked up as of yet. Canada has the inside track with their win already on the board and either a win or draw over Chile could get them over the hump assuming Argentina sweeps the group and beats Peru in their final matchup.
I am a little worried about Chile’s attack at this point but the winner of their game against Canada likely is the second-place finisher. It will be interesting to see how each team handles the game state due to the advancing scenarios against each other.
Group A concludes on Saturday night June 29th with Argentina-Peru from Miami and Canada-Chile from Orlando with both games kicking off at 8 pm EDT.