Brazil, reduced to ten after the exclusion of Gabriel Jesus in the 48th minute, suffered to beat Chile 1-0 on Friday to reach the semi-finals of the Copa America where they will face Peru.
In the Olímpico Nilton Santos stadium in Rio, the Seleçao generally dominated their quarter-final, but had to wait until the second half to materialize.
It was Olympique Lyonnais midfielder Lucas Paqueta who, coming into play at the break, gave the victory to the Seleçao by taking advantage of a combination with Neymar to speed up the Chilean defense in the area and register the only goal of the game (47th).
On the following action, another twist with the exclusion of Gabriel Jesus for a violent tackle in front of the Manchester City striker at the level of the torso of Eugenio Mena (49th).
The Chileans failed to take advantage of this advantage. A goal by Eduardo Vargas in the 62nd minute was called off for offside after consulting the VAR and they hit the crossbar on a lobbed header (68th) from Ben Brereton.
During the first half, Brazil’s best opportunity to open the scoring came in the 20th minute when Neymar found Roberto Firmino in a good position, but the Liverpool scorer failed to cheat the Chilean keeper Claudio Bravo.
In search of his first coronation in Copa America – injured in an ankle, he had not participated in the 2019 edition won by the Seleçao – Neymar admitted that his team suffered against the Chilean “Roja”.
“We started the game very well, then we scored a goal and then we had to resist Chile who have a very well organized team and high quality players,” said the star of Paris SG.
Beating Chile “was a great test”: “We knew it would be a difficult game but the important thing is that we got the victory and that we managed to go to the semi-finals,” he added.
Brazil will meet Peru on Monday in Rio, who qualified on penalties against Paraguay (3-3, 4 shots on goal to 3).
Brazil-Peru had been the poster for the final of the last Copa, a match won 3 to 1 by the Seleçao who had offered their 9th title in the flagship competition of South American football.
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