Copa America 2015 Final Highlights: It looked like 2014 FIFA World Cup nightmare repeated itself for Argentina, when the team yet again faltered at the last step and missed the opportunity to capture their 15th Copa America title.
Argentina, who had last won the Copa title back in 1993, were gunning to end their 22 year old drought, but after 120 minutes of valiant performance, the team seemed to have fallen to pieces as they lost to the host 4-1 in penalty shootout.
Meanwhile, it was dream come true for the host team Chile, as they finally got to hold a major title in their name after winning their maiden title in form of Copa America 2015.
What is more last night’s heartbreak yet again denied Argentina’s star player Lionel Messi – the only Argentina player to score in the shootout –a chance to lift a major trophy at international level.
The night only turned sourer for Messi as reports came that his family was heckled by Chilean fans with Messi’s brother Rodrigo even being attacked by a fan after a heated argument close to the half-time mark.
The night had started almost on aggressive note with both team starting on attacking play to score early and take a one up in the game, but into the 20th minute and the game had almost been tamed down for the teams. But things only got more aggressive between the players from then on and soon a change for Argentina was called a Lavezzi replaced Di Maria after he pulled a muscle in the 29th minute of the game.
Going into the half time though no team had scored both teams had been brilliant in their defence. The second half though began with Argentina being pushed into defence by the Chilean in hard into attack just like they did in the first half of the game. But the efforts still did bear fruit as both the teams were still not able to score in the allotted 90 minutes plus the 30 extra minutes given to them.
It finally came down to penalty shootout, and how much a team can thrive under pressure to survive and it was here that Argentina faltered as after Messi’s initial good start, both Higuain and Banega failed to score and Chile’s Sanchez only capitalised on their mistakes and scored the final penalty goal for Chile with a cheeky ease which has now made Chile, the Copa America champion for the first time in history.
