Colombia 0 Chile 2: Arsenal star Alexis Sanchez celebrates 100th cap with victory to book Copa America final place
ARSENAL man Alexis Sanchez celebrated his 100th Chile cap by helping his side into the final of the 100th Copa America after a three-hour half time interval
The little maestro set up one of his side’s first-half goals and drove them on throughout the tense 90 minutes to schedule a final clash with Lionel Messi and Argentina.
But the games was almost postponed at half time due to a dangerous Chigao storm, instead it was deleayed by two hours and four minutes.
Charles Aranguiz poked home the fortunate opener after some comedy Colombia defending on seven minutes and Jose Fuenzalida jabbed home a rebound after the Gunners man had hit the wordwork just four minutes later.
The final meeting will be the second consecutive final fought out between the two sides with Sanchez’s men the reigning champions after 2015’s penalty shoot-out win.
And there was never really any doubt about Chile making the final, especially after they took the lead so early.
Perhaps they were still in fifth gear after demolishing Mexico 7-0 in their quarter-final.
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Colombia were caught cold when Fuenzalida hurtled down the right wing and looked to have wasted his hard work by aiming his cross directly at Colombia midfielder Carlos Sanchez.
Inexplicably the Aston Villa midfielder headed the ball back across his own goal and perfectly into the feet of Aranguiz who finished off.
And four minutes later the match was in danger of being over inside 12 minutes.
Chile and Barcelona keeper Claudio Bravo thundered a goal kick down the pitch in the direction of Emirates idol Sanchez.
The forward wrestled with his hesitant marker until he had wriggled away from his grasp and fired off a right-foot shot that smacked the base of the front post and rebounded around the back of Colombia stopper David Ospina and into the path of Fuenzalida who tapped home.
Thankfully for the sake of sportsmanship the flow of the game levelled out after the early goals and Colombia recovered.
Striker Roger Martinez almost celebrated his 23rd birthday in supreme style with a goal to halve the deficit but Bravo parried his shot to safety on 29 minutes.
The players went off for half-time and very almost never returned as the vicious storm that was battering supporters was deemed to dangerous for play to continue so there was an extended break for the trailing Colombians to regroup.
The delay ran to two hours and 40 minutes between the end of the first half and the start of the second after a furious storm of thunder and lightning.
Eventually, after some desperate attempts to sweep, hurl and shovel the rain water off of the pitch, the game was resumed.
Chile slipped back into the dominant role and went close with a number of chances but it was a different sport with the ball stopping dead with every pass.
On 57 minutes Colombia’s dwindling hopes evaporated all together as Championship midfielder Sanchez was sent off for a second yellow card
On 66 minutes a chance did come along and predictably it came through the air. Chile substitute Erick Pulgar rose highest in the box to connect with a cross but he headed directly at Ospina who saved with ease.
The final few minutes fizzled out with both teams probably happy to bring the soggy affair to a close as soon as possible.