Chile vs Peru: Brazil awaits winner in final

Defending champions Chile will look to take on Brazil in the Copa America final, but first they will have to find a way past Peru.

La Roja are the two-time defending champions and are hoping to become the first team to win three titles in a row in the modern era. The last team to do a three-peat was Argentina, who won the then-named South American Championship in 1945, 1946, and 1947.

Since it was re-branded and re-formatted as the Copa America in 1975, no team has ever been able to win three in a row. Now they are just one game away from making the final, but Peru comes into this game having staged a major upset.

La Blanquirroja managed to dump highly-favored Uruguay out of the competition after a tense scoreless draw ended up heading to penalties. That’s after suffering a 5-0 humiliating defeat to Brazil on matchday three of their group stage campaign. In fact, Peru have won just one game so far at this summer’s tournament – a 3-1 victory over Bolivia – but they will be extra motivated due to the bitter rivalry between themselves and Chile.

Chile, in fact, knocked them out of the Copa America at this same juncture four years ago. And Peru will be missing key forward Jefferson Farfan who has been ruled out of the competition due to a knee problem. That being said, Ricardo Gareca’s side astonishingly did not have a single shot on target against Uruguay and managed to win that contest – albeit they were very lucky to see calls going in their favor, namely Uruguay having not one, but three goals ruled out during the match.

Still, their lack of firepower up front, which has seen them fail to score in regular time in three of their four matches at this tournament, is a major problem. Clearly, they will be again relying on defensive solidarity as they did against Uruguay, but it’s a huge gamble, as they attempted the same against Brazil and once the wall broke, it all went downhill from there.

Meanwhile, Chile have been quietly plugging along. Despite being the two-time defending champions, La Roja were largely overlooked as contenders for the title, and in fact, many expected Colombia to win in the quarter-finals due to their excellent defensive record. Colombia had not conceded a single goal so far, and in fact, didn’t concede either against Chile – but ended up losing on spot-kicks.

Having overcome that tricky test, Chile will thus be fancying their chances against Peru. Although Los Incas are a wildly unpredictable side, they did beat Chile in their most recent meeting, winning 3-0 in a friendly.

Still, it’s Chile who have the superior record, with wins in 12 of their last 14 encounters. Both sides will be looking to make history. For Peru, they are on the cusp of their first final appearance since 1975. For Chile, they will be looking to make their third straight final, where hosts Brazil await.

It’s set to be an intriguing match between these two neighboring countries. Who will be the one to face Brazil in the final?