Copa America 2019: Paraguay hold Argentina to a draw
Last night's action saw Paraguay take on Argentina, with both sides looking for their first win of the competition after Argentina were poor in their first game and fell to a 2-0 defeat to Colombia and the Paraguayan’s slumped to a 2-2 draw with Qatar. The game was a chance for both sides to bounce back and make a claim for their place in the final eight.
The first half was very dull and boring up until a fantastic run and cross down the left-hand side from Newcastle’s Miguel Almiron was met by Richard Sanchez to smash the ball past the Argentine keeper to give the Paraguayans the lead. That was one of only two shots on target in the first half, the other being a free kick from Messi which hardly troubled the keeper.
Also see : Womens World Cup Bracket, Gold Cup Standings, Copa America Standings.
In the second half of the game, things spiced up a little and with 52 minutes on the clock, some good work by Sergio Aguero to find Lautaro Martinez who eventually hit the bar, a chance really he should have taken to put things all square. Three minutes later it was time for VAR to intervene and award a penalty to Argentina following a hand-ball in the area from Paraguay’s Ivan Piris, which Lionel Messi converted with a fantastically struck penalty to the keepers left.
Then a clumsy tackle in the box from Argentina centre-half Nicolas Otamendi saw the referee point to the spot. A stupid tackle which quite frankly could have cost his team in the competition never mind the game, but luckily for Otamendi, he was let off the hook by his goalkeeper Franco Armani of River Plate who made a fantastic save to deny Gonzalez.
Other than that, there was not much to offer in this game,but one thing that comes out of the game is that both teams have a chance going into the last game of progressing to the knockout stage. Argentina will take on Qatar in a game they will need to win. This is the same for Paraguay who will take on Colombia, who after the draw top the group.