Copa America semifinals sees Argentina breeze past Colombian dreams

Copa America semi-finals at the Estádio Nacional de Brasília Mané Garrincha, Brasilia was indeed a belter of a football game as Lionel Scaloni's side scraped for the last-minute penalty shoot out to prove themselves decisive against a competitive Colombia side.

Aston Villa goalkeeper, Scaloni emerged as a saviour to his team as he lunged hard and was successful in denying three Columbian penalties to see his team sail through to the Copa America Finals. 

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During the first 45 mins, it was pure football passion that we got to see from the players of two football giants as they went back and forth at each other. But it was Argentina and their golden man Lionel Messi who time and again had proved the definition of best to others and set an example by finding his fifth assist of the tournament in just a matter of 6 minutes. Lautaro Martinez had no scope for mistake as he zipped the ball past Columbian goalkeeper David Ospina to find the top right corner of the net.

But Columbian's are not be underestimated at all as Emiliano Martinez held back Argentina's deadly attacking formation and rejected them twice when they tried to score. 

An hour into the game and the Columbians decided to break the ice as they levelled with Luiz Diaz securing a genius goal when he placed the ball on the left of the Argentine box from a tight angle to beat Martinez and level the score.

The Shootout that decided their fate and a spot in the Copa America Finals

A nail bitter it was but nothing to do with luck, rather sheer performance capabilities as Emiliano Martinez turned out to be a superhero for his side as he went on to deny Sanchez, Mina and Cardona respectively. Those beautiful saves helped Martinez fix his team's spot at the Copa America finale where they would go on to meet the Brazilian dream team at the Maracana, Rio De Janerio in what is expected to be the greatest and the most anticipated football games of all times.

This was Argentina and Columbia's third face off in the Copa America semi-finals. The first time was in 1993 where Argentina won on penalties and emerged champions.

The second face-off was in 2004 where Argentina won but unfortunately couldn't keep up with Brazil where they lost in the finals.

Argentina remains unbeaten in this year's competition. Scaloni's side finished top of their group with 3 wins and a draw to Chile. In the quarter-finals, they won 3-0 against Equador to the semi-finals. 

La Albiceleste has reached the finals in 4 of the last 6 editions but has not been fortunate enough to lift the prestigious trophy in almost 30 years. 

Image Credits - AP