Lautaro Martinez scored off a corner kick in the 88th minute to give Argentina a 1-0 victory over Chile in East Rutherford, N.J., allowing the reigning champions to clinch a berth in the quarterfinals of Copa America.
“That was a well-deserved victory. It wasn’t an easy match,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said. “I wasn’t expecting to see that goal in the last minute, but we always keep attacking to the last.”
Lionel Messi sent a corner kick into the box where Claudio Bravo saved a shot by Giovani Lo Celso before the rebound came out to Martinez.
“I stayed there and was able to score,” Martinez said. “These games are like that, but we were able to win it. We are happy because we ended up getting the three points, which is what we wanted.”
The goal withstood a review for being offside.
“From what I could see, they were marking well, but there was a deflection on the back of an Argentinian player that had its role there,” Chile coach Ricardo Gareca said. “Of course, it was hard to lose in this manner, but we still had our chances.”
Bravo made eight saves, including an acrobatic stop in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time on Martinez, who also scored in the 88th minute of a 2-0 win over Canada in the opener of Group A action.
Emiliano Martinez made three saves for Argentina, which had a 22-3 shot advantage.
“Chile was playing for their life,” Emiliano Martinez said. “We knew it was going to be difficult. Claudio played a great game, but we deserved to win.”
The final Group A matches are Saturday: Argentina (2-0-0, 6 points) plays Peru (0-1-1, 1 point) in Miami Gardens, Fla.; while Chile (0-1-1, 1 point) opposes Canada (1-1-0, 3 points) in Orlando, Fla. The top two teams advance to the quarterfinals.
Argentina kept prodding and poking for the breakthrough and had two glorious chances early in the second half. Nahuel Molina took a pass from Messi and tried to sneak the shot past the near post, but Bravo held his ground to make a 50th-minute save.
In the 61st minute, Nicolas Gonzalez’s rising shot was parried off the crossbar by Bravo. At that point, the shots were 17-0 with six on target.
Chile’s first attempt came in the 72nd and was a dandy with Rodrigo Echeverria firing from just outside the box to force the save by Emiliano Martinez.
Just four minutes later, Echeverria ripped a shot from 15 yards, only to have Emiliano Martinez make a scrambling reactionary save.
“It was a very tough and complicated match and I think the players performed very well in particular when it comes to controlling and keeping them in check and in particular the second half,” Gareca said. “In the first half, we were a bit more tight, but in the second half we started playing more loose.”
Argentina dominated the first half with 13 shots, three on goal. The Argentines had 20 first-half shots without a goal in their first two matches.
Messi brought the 81,106 fans to their feet in the 36th minute with a 30-yard strike that skipped once before careening off the bottom of the right post.
The attempt came 10 minutes after he went to the sideline briefly for treatment on his right thigh after a hard foul by Gabriel Suazo.
“It was a tough match,” Argentina defender Cristian Romero said. “In the Copa America, it seems that all the teams play us the same way.
“We are happy because we played a good match. We showed that we are doing very well and that we are still hungry to achieve things.”
–Field Level Media
