Copa America 2019: 3 reasons why Peru eliminated Uruguay
In what was arguably the shock of the tournament so far, Peru pulled off a great surprise by eliminating one of the pre-tournament favorites in Uruguay. The match finished at 0-0, but the underdogs held their nerve to progress by 5-4 on penalties.
Uruguay had impressively topped a group also containing Chile and Japan, garnering seven points from a possible nine to progress as group winners, while Peru only made it this far by virtue of their standing as one of the best third-placed teams in the group stage.
The strength in depth of Uruguay's squad coupled with their status as record winners of this competition put the odds heavily in their favor to progress, but as they say football is not mathematics and on the night, Peru threw all pre-match analysis and form books out of the window to progress to their third semifinal in the last four tournaments.
They would now go on to face Chile in the semifinal on July 3 in Porto Alegre and in this piece, we shall be highlighting three reasons why Peru pulled off the shock victory against Uruguay.
#3 Uruguay failed to take their chances
As stated earlier, the difference in class between Uruguay and Peru was very evident, as with proven performers like Luis Suarez, Edinson Cavani, Diego Godin, Lucas Torreira and Jose Gimenez, Los Celeste are one of the most gifted national sides in the world.
Beyond the natural talent on display, head coach Oscar Tabarez has also molded them into a very compact side and the difference in status of both teams was evident from the blast of the whistle, as Uruguay went about stamping their authority on the match.
In total, they fashioned 10 shots at the Peruvian goal with four of those being on target, but rather tellingly, they failed to make it count in the one statistic that truly mattered.
They were able to crate a number of clear cut chances but somehow conspired to miss them, with Edinson Cavani being the worst of the lot, as the PSG forward somehow missed from six yards out in front of an open net in what is usually bound to go down as the miss of the tournament.
The reliable Diego Godin also showed a lack of composure when he blasted over from just few yards out while there were also elements of unluckiness about Uruguay as they had three goals marginally ruled out with VAR checks.
Uruguay created more than enough chances to put Peru to the sword but having failed to do so, they have no one else but themselves to blame for their elimination.