On June 11, the third round of group matches began.
In Group A, the host United States defeated Paraguay 1-0. After losing the first group match, they reversed their points with two consecutive wins and rose to the top of the group.
After winning the first two games, Colombia used all substitutes in the third round. They lost to Costa Rica 2-3 and advanced to the quarterfinals as second in the group.
In Group B, Brazil lost to Peru 0-1 and won only one of the three group matches. Ranking third in the group, Peru was unexpectedly eliminated. Peru had two wins and one draw and seven points to qualify first in the group. Ecuador beat Brazil with two draws and one win and five points. qualify.
Five-star Brazil can't even qualify for the group stage, which is really surprising. Although Neymar is absent due to injury, it also shows how weak Brazil's combat effectiveness is now, and there is no successor!
In Group C, since Mexico and Venezuela had already qualified with two consecutive wins, the two teams played a tacit match and finally tied 1-1 to qualify. The remaining two teams, Uruguay and Jamaica, could only fight back. The house is over.
Next, there is the Group D match. The first match is Chile VS Panama. The two teams needed to compete for the second place in the group, so they played very fiercely. A total of 7 yellow cards and one red card appeared. In the end, the Chilean team ended this tragic qualifying battle 4-2 Panama. Chile The team defeated Panama and ranked second in the group to qualify.
Of course, if Argentina loses to Bolivia by a big score and the goal difference advantage is weakened, the Chilean team may still reverse its ranking and rise to the top of the group.
But this is only theoretical. It is impossible for Argentina to lose to Bolivia by a large score. This is not Bolivia's domestic plateau.
At 22:00 on the evening of June 14, local time, the final match of the 2016 Centenary America's Cup group stage between Argentina and Bolivia officially started at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, USA.
With Argentina already locked in first place in the group, and the substitutes were destined to be rotated in this game, only more than 40,000 people were seated in a stadium that could accommodate more than 60,000 people.
After all, many local citizens in the United States come here for superstars such as Messi and exciting games. However, Messi, who is not in good physical shape, is destined not to play in this game. Even if others do play, they will not be interested and will not watch much. head.
Argentina's starting lineup did not surprise everyone. Rojo, Mascherano, Banega, Di Maria, Messi and others were on the bench. Cuesta, Roncaglia, La Mela, Kranevert, Aguero, Lavezzi and others won the starting position.
Everyone thinks that Bolivia, which has lost two consecutive games and is out early, should fight for its own honor in this game and at least strive for one point.
Argentina, which has already qualified early and secured the victory, should have little motivation.
Unexpectedly, Lavezzi, Lamela and others who came off the bench were very motivated because they didn't have much playing time, so they should cherish it. Especially after Messi and Di Maria are absent, Willard has become the absolute core in terms of strength and qualifications. But he did not slack off, but took the game very seriously from the first minute in order to gain experience.
This resulted in a match that was beyond everyone's expectations.
Although Bolivia did fight for honor and launched an attack on Argentina, their offense not only failed to break through the Argentine defense led by Velarde, but instead caused a huge hole in their own defense after losing the ball, which Velard took advantage of. got up.
Only 13 minutes into the game, Velarde got the ball in the backcourt and suddenly made a long pass, directly piercing Bolivia's defense.
Center Higuain stood on the offside line and did not move, confusing the Bolivian defender. As a result, winger Lavezzi intervened at high speed, successfully countered offside, and received a pass from Velarde at the front of Bolivia's penalty area to form a one-on-one shot.
The next thing was simple. Facing the attacking goalkeeper Ramper, Lavezzi calmly chose a volley from the far corner and successfully kicked the ball into the Bolivia goal.
Argentina led 1-0, Lavezzi opened the scoring and Velarde received an assist.
Next, this game became a warm-up match for Argentina to score goals and gain experience. Bolivia had almost no resistance.
20 minutes later, in the 34th minute, Willard dribbled the ball past two people and then hit the wall with the corresponding center Higuain. Then he caught the ball on the left side of the penalty area and shot a arc. Line ball.
The ball jumped into the air, flew past center defender Centeno, then avoided goalkeeper Lamper's fingers and flew into the goal against the far post.
Argentina extended the score to 2-0, and Velarde gained one pass and one shot.
Unfortunately, everyone was not very lucky and could not expand the score in the rest of the first half. But after a 15-minute break, in the 59th minute of the second half, Willard's long shot from outside the penalty area resulted in a corner kick.
Wing-back Lamela took a corner kick, and Velard jumped high among the crowd in the penalty area, easily grabbed the first point, and headed the ball into the goal.
Velarde scored twice and Argentina led 3-0, completely sealing the victory.
Therefore, Gerardo Martino made three substitutions in a row, allowing Higuain, Otamendi, and Mori to rest.
But this does not prevent Argentina from continuing to attack.
Of course, Bolivia did not give up attacking because they did not want to be shaved off and wanted to score to save some face. But it was precisely based on this idea that they suffered another fatal blow from Argentina in the 80th minute.
It was Velard again. After forcing Bolivian forward Duke to lose the ball in the backcourt, he got a pass from his teammate and ran long distance. He broke through the interceptions of three people in a row and attracted the attention of four opponents from the front of the Bolivian penalty area. After double-teaming front and back, he passed the ball diagonally into the penalty area.
Wing-back Lamela, who followed Velard running all the way from the midfield, rushed into the penalty area unmarked, received the ball from Velard, volleyed the ball without stopping, and kicked the ball into the goal. Bottom right corner of the goal.
Goalkeeper Lamper was helpless and could only watch the ball hit the net.
Argentina expanded the score again, and the score has been rewritten to 4-0, and Velard also scored two goals and two assists.
Although Messi and Di Maria did not appear, Velarde's wonderful performance still won the applause of many local fans.
In the remaining time, Argentina finally did not score any more goals, and Bolivia finally did not lose as badly as Panama. The fundamental reason is that the other players in Argentina are average in strength and not very motivated. They only scored 4 goals due to Velarde's performance, so Bolivia was given a break.
In the end, Argentina defeated Bolivia 4-0 and won the last game of the group stage.
At this point, all group matches are over. Argentina has won three games, scored 13 goals, conceded 0 goals, and ranked first in the group. No team in the group matches has as strong a record as Argentina.
The defending champion's popularity is at its highest.
With Velarde in such good form, coupled with Messi, Di Maria, Aguero, Higuain, Mascherano and other superstars, as well as Brazil's elimination from the group stage, no one thinks that Argentina will defend the title of Copa América. How difficult is it to win the cup?
Everyone just needs to wait for Argentina to win the championship.
