Defending champions Chile defeated Argentina to win the Copa America Centenario in a penalty shootout in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Sunday as Lionel Messi\u2019s Argentina title curse continued.<\/p>\n
Messi blazed a penalty over the bar in the shootout before Lucas Biglia missed to leave Chile\u2019s Francisco Silva with the task of stroking home the winning spot-kick at the MetLife Stadium.<\/p>\n
It was a carbon copy of last year\u2019s Copa America final, also won by Chile on penalties after a goalless draw.<\/p>\n
Argentina\u2019s players meanwhile were left disconsolate as they digested a third defeat in a major final following losses to Germany in the 2014 World Cup and Chile in last year\u2019s Copa.<\/p>\n
The defeat also ensured Argentina\u2019s 23-year wait for a major title — and a first for five-time world player of the year Messi — continued.<\/p>\n
The final had gone to penalties after finishing deadlocked at 0-0 after 120 minutes.<\/p>\n
Both sides were reduced to 10 men in the first half as Brazilian referee Heber Lopes struggled to get a grip on an ill-tempered contest played in front of a crowd of 82,026.<\/p>\n
The first yellow card of the match came in the 16th minute when Marcelo Diaz brought down Messi with a cynical hack across the thighs as the Barcelona star advanced on the Chilean goal.<\/p>\n
Argentina should have taken the lead on 21 minutes when a defensive blunder from Gary Medel, miscontrolling a back pass, allowed Gonzalo Higuain to go clean through on goal.<\/p>\n
Chile let-off<\/b><\/p>\n
Higuain had time and space but opted to lift his shot over the advancing Bravo and it rolled wide of the post in a huge let-off for Chile.<\/p>\n
It was a nightmarish case of deja vu for Higuain, who missed potentially match-winning chances in both the 2014 World Cup final and last year\u2019s Copa America.<\/p>\n
Seven minutes later, Chile were left rocking when Messi burst forward only to be bodychecked blatantly by Diaz.<\/p>\n
For a moment it appeared that referee Lopes had forgotten Diaz\u2019s earlier caution but eventually he brandished a red card and Chile were down to 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Defending champions Chile defeated Argentina to win the Copa America Centenario in a penalty shootout in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Sunday as Lionel Messi\u2019s Argentina title curse continued. Messi blazed a penalty over the bar in the shootout before…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianewsnet.com\/marathi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18188"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianewsnet.com\/marathi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianewsnet.com\/marathi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianewsnet.com\/marathi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianewsnet.com\/marathi\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/indianewsnet.com\/marathi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18189,"href":"https:\/\/indianewsnet.com\/marathi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18188\/revisions\/18189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianewsnet.com\/marathi\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianewsnet.com\/marathi\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianewsnet.com\/marathi\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18188"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianewsnet.com\/marathi\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=18188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}