Chile complete a fairytale story as Argentina realize that favourites tag counts for nothing
The game moved into extra time and the crowd kept their red flags up and flying, shouting and spurring their team on to do better and to get the goal that gets them the cup which they have been waiting for in the lifetime.
Just moments before the referee had blowed his whistle to end the 90 minutes, Chilean hearts were in their mouths as Messi whizzed past one defender, then took it around the other at the halfway line and in a burst of speed went towards the goal with 3 defenders in front of him and Lavezzi and Higuain on either side of him.
Messi passed to his left and Lavezzi took the first touch in his stride and then send his pass to Higuain, the ball rolled past the defenders near to the far post crying out for a touch but the touch came too late and the ball hit the side netting. It has been 22 years since Argentina won a major cup and this was going to be a moment that they would regret.
The game was played in full tempo with both sets of players running and chasing the ball wanting to lift that cup. Chile the four-time runners-up in this tournament were determined not to become second best a 5th time and you could see it from the way they played.
Brilliant display by Sanchez
Sanchez was an absolute beast with his touches, assured and always seemed to get the better of his marker. But what both teams missed in the half was a proper finish with all efforts on goal going straight at the goalie.
The first real disadvantage came in the way of the Manchester United winger Angel Di Maria limping off after a rampaging run, only to pull his hamstring in the end. The left-footed winger was replaced by Ezequiel Lavezzi who wasn’t able to stretch the Chilean defence like Di Maria was doing in the first 30 minutes or so.
The second half went in a similar fashion with both teams having periods where they had the upper hand. Defensive mistakes were abundant, but no one seemed to be capable of capitalising on one.
Then Higuain and Banega came on for Aguero and Pastore, substitutions that didnt seem to make much sense because the game seemed destined to head into extra time. After the miss by Higuain, not his last, the game went into ET and it was a very scrappy extra time affair with the only one major chance falling to Sanchez after he latched onto a mistake by Mascherano and ran towards the Argentina goal.
The Chilean was closed down by an equally quick Zabaleta who did enough and the ball sailed past the crossbar into the expecting crowd.
Winning and losing in the shootout
So it went to penalties with Fernadez slotting it in for Chile into the top left corner with both precision and power. Both Messi and Vidal scored from the spots and all eyes fell to Higuain next, the Napoli man walked to the spot and put the ball way over the bar and it was 2-1 to chile. Chile scored their next to make it 3-1 and then stepped up the next substitute Ever Banega.
Not much can be said of that penalty except that it was weak with Bravo easily stopping the weak shot to the left. It was 3-1 to Chile and up stepped their main man Alexis Sanchez to end their 99-year wait and in a very Pirlo like fashion, Sanchez sent Romeo the wrong way and calmly slotted the ball into the center and ran off to celebrate.
If a penalty had to win you a cup, then Sanchez’s penalty was a worthy one. Some things are not meant to happen and Messi who is by far the best player in the world and who has won absolutely everything with his club has to wait to lift a major cup with his country.