Uruguay won Argentina on penalties and reaches the Copa America’s semifinal

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• In the first half, Uruguay took the lead early, a move that has been working in this Copa America. After free kick from Forlan, Lugano headed and the Argentinean goalkeeper Romero gave rebound. On the left, midfielder Diego Perez did a 1x0 for Celeste. Advantaged, Uruguay went to the defense and saw the Argentina press.
  
  And the Argentine pressure worked for the equalizer. After 17 minutes, Messi made a great move and crossed to Higuain tie the game, heading. With the tie, both teams began to play with more caution and thrown out after the major set pieces. At 30 minutes, Messi got the ball back at the head of Higuain, who scored the goal that was eventually annulled by the referee Carlos Amarilla, because he scored in an offside position. Five minutes later, the Paraguayan referee also agreed to cancel the goal from Alvaro Pereira, also in offside. At the last minute of the first time, Lugano hit Romero crossbar.
  
  At the end of the first stage, Uruguay had the midfielder Diego Perez sent off after a second yellow card. With one more, Argentina went to the attack on the entire second stage and created the main chances. Zabeleta, Messi and Di Maria, with shots from outside the area, tried to score the winning goal but could not overcome the archer Uruguay. At 32 minutes, it was time to try to Higuain. The striker turned in the penalty area and kicked hard, but Muslera made great save.
  
  At the end of the match, Argentina lost the midfielder Mascherano, also sent off after taking a second yellow. In the second stage, the Argentina coach, Sergio Batista, placed striker Tevez. 
  
  In extra time, with 10 players for each side, the game became more open and Argentina continued to press more. At the end of the first half of extra time, Higuain kicked off the post. In the second half of extra time, Argentina stopped in the hands of the goalkeeper Muslera. And the same happened in the penalty shoot-out, when the young Uruguayan goalkeeper saved Tevez penalty and gave the victory on penalties to the Celeste by 5-4.
  
  Argentina, hostess o the Copa America, is eliminated. Uruguay will now face Peru in the semifinals, to be played in La Plata, on June 19, in the stadium Unico de La Plata.
  
  
  ARGENTINA  X  URUGUAY
  Stadium: Stadium Brigadier General Estanislao López, Santa Fe, Argentina; Referee: Carlos Amarilla (PAR); Goals: Gonzalo Higuaín (17’) (Argentina); Diego Pérez (5’) (Uruguay); Yellow Cards: Pablo Zabaleta (8’), Javier Mascherano (50’), Gabriel Milito (70’), Nicolás Burdisso (72’), Fernando Gago (92’), Carlos Tévez (118’) (Argentina); Diego Pérez (2’), Martín Cáceres (31’), Álvaro González (33’) (Uruguay); Red Cards: Javier Mascherano (86’) (Argentina); Diego Pérez (38’) (Uruguay).
  
  ARGENTINA: 23-Sergio Romero, 3- Pablo Zabaleta, 4- Nicolás Burdisso, 6- Gabriel Milito, 8- Javier Zanetti, 20- Fernando Gago (15-Lucas Biglia, 96’), 14- Javier Mascherano, 7- Ángel Di Maria (18-Javier Pastore, 72’), 10- Lionel Messi, 16- Sergio Agüero (11-Carlos Tévez, 83’) and 9- Gonzalo Higuaín. Coach: Sergio Batista.
  Penalty Shootout: Lionel Messi (goal), Nicolás Burdisso (goal), Carlos Tévez (missed), Javier Pastore (goal) and Gonzalo Higuaín (goal).
  
  
  URUGUAY: 1- Fernando Muslera, 16- Maxi Pereira, 2- Diego Lugano, 6- Mauricio Victorino (19-Andrés Scotti, 19’), 22- Martín Cáceres, 15- Diego Pérez, 17- Arévalo Ríos (8-Sebastián Eguren, 109’), 20- Álvaro González, 11- Álvaro Pereira (5-Walter Gargano, 109’), 10- Diego Forlán  and 9- Luis Suárez. Coach: Oscar Tabárez.
  Penalty Shootout: Diego Forlán (goal), Luis Suárez (goal), Andrés Scotti (goal), Walter Gargano (goal) and Martín Cáceres (goal).
  
  
  Source: ca2011.com