Chile booked their place in the semi-finals of the Copa America after beating Colombia 5-4 in a penalty shootout.
Manchester United’s Alexis Sanchez converted the winning spot-kick to continue his good form at the tournament and send the defending champions through after the game finished 0-0.
Sanchez, who is the joint top-scorer at the Copa America with two goals, was given the chance to win it after Colombia’s final attempt was missed by William Tesillo.
Alexis Sanchez scores the deciding penalty to send Chile to the semifinals!#CopaAmerica pic.twitter.com/8u9ykdC3Qm
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) June 29, 2019
Chile thought they had broken the deadlock on two occasions but saw strikes from Charles Aranguiz and Arturo Vidal ruled-out by the video assistant referee (VAR), meaning that the game had to be settled by penalties.
Charles Aranguiz had a goal ruled out in the first half for a marginal offside against Sanchez in the build up to the move.
And after Arturo Vidal shot low into the far corner on 70 minutes, that was chalked off for a handball against Guillermo Maripan, who had teed up the Barcelona midfielder.
Chile keep their three-peat #CopaAmerica dreams alive ?? pic.twitter.com/I6BZTVG8Dr
— B/R Football (@brfootball) June 29, 2019
Following eight successful penalties, William Tesillo casually put his effort wide for Colombia, leaving Sanchez to be the hero, as the Manchester United forward continues to make up in Brazil for a dreadful club season.
“We dominated practically the whole match. It was a great match against a team with a lot of quality,” said Vidal.
Victory in Sao Paulo means that Chile will face either Uruguay or Peru in Porto Alegre on Wednesday for the chance to reach a third successive Copa America final.
The other semi-final will see hosts Brazil face old rivals Argentina, who set up the encounter with a 2-0 win over Venezuela in Friday’s earlier game.