Paraguay sends Brazil out of Copa America

The penalty shootout claimed as mere “luck” by Muslera in the last match against Argentina, seemed to have helped the team once again. The semi finals against Brazil resulted in sending them home as the sorry shootout performance by Brazil ended in nudging Paraguay to the next round.

The score ended in 2-0 as the Brazilians missed all of their spot-kicks. Ganso and Pato made good moves on the field as they attempted a few kicks to the goal of Paraguay along with Neymar and Robinho attacking on the line-up. However this wasn’t enough to overcome the clash from the opponent sides. Neymar had two opportunities to score the goal during the first half: first during the 7th minute and then during the half-hour mark, but could not successfully score both the times. Pato’s attempt was brushed aside by Paraguay’s goalkeeper, Justo Villar, who was in excellent shape during the game. He admitted that it was a lot of hard work to keep the ball out of the goal area as Brazil had the ball possession most of the game.

Brazilian coach, after the match, said that it was unfortunate but that it was all part of the game and their focus is to get the best of the team for the upcoming world cup in 2014. On the other hand, Paraguay’s coach said that they were happy to defeat Brazil as they were highly favored. The last time Paraguay had won a championship was in 1979.

As the game ended in extra time, one player from both the sides: Brazilian midfielder Lucas Leiva and Uruguay’s Antolin Alcaraz, were sent off following a dispute on field. Even though the possession of the all resided with Brazil with much of the game, they did not manage to score.

On the other side, Venezuela, in a shocking performance has entered the semi finals on Sunday as they won their last match against Chile with a score of 2-1. It was Oswaldo Vizcarrondo who scored the first for Venezuela but then Humberto Suazo evened the score during the second half of the match. As the game went into extra timing, Gabriel Cichero made the second goal for Venezula which made the whole stadium roar with excitement as this was the first time that Venezula were in the semi finals.

It ought to be an exciting finals as their already has been winning-surprises in the games so far.

Tags: Brazil, Copa America, Football, Paraguay, Shootout, Spot Kicks