It was finally time for Peru to shine after being called out by many in the tournament as they pulled a stunning semifinals win over Chile.
Two weeks later of having a 5-0 humiliating defeat against Brazil and being a team that was on the verge of being eliminated, Peru made a surprising comeback in the South America tournament.
And now they made it past the 2 times defending champion quite easily and dominantly with their 3-0 win on Wednesday. This is the first time since 1975, that Peru has made it to the finals of the South American tournament.
Peru already stunned the audience with their dominating win over Paraguay in the quarterfinals by advancing into the tournaments as two of the best third-place finishers in 3 groups. With this win now, they will be having a revenge match against Brazil on Sunday in the final that will be held at Maracanã Stadium.
Ricardo Gareca, Peru’s coach said, “We are a team that is aware of how to overcome their adversaries. This is something very unique for our team. While the loss from Brazil would not have hurt any other team, it made us recover. We deserve a lot of credit for such a recovery.”
As for Chile, they were bidding to be the first team since Argentina of 1940 to win 3 Copa America titles in a row.
Reinaldo Rueda, Chile’s coach said, “We entered the match while thinking about the finals and that is how we let Peru surprise us. We were not able to show our opponents our aggressiveness as well as our attitude from our last matches.”
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