Chile’s hopes of winning its home Copa America sharply improved with a 1-0 win over defending champion Uruguay on Wednesday.Defender Mauricio Isla scored an 81st-minute winner to lead the hosts to the semifinals of the South American tournament, delighting the home crowd and an entire country.Chile dominated the game from the start and Isla finally broke the deadlock with a low shot from just inside the area after a pass by Jorge Valdivia, advancing his team to the tournament’s semifinals for the first time in 16 years.
“This is the most important goal I’ve scored in my life,” said Isla, who is coming off a difficult season with Queens Park Rangers in England. “For being at home, with the national team, for everything.”Uruguay, trying to make it to the semifinals for the sixth-straight time, played a man down from the 63rd after star striker Edinson Cavani was shown his second yellow card of the match for apparently slapping Chile’s Gonzalo Jara away from the ball. Television images later showed that Cavani reacted immediately after Jara provoked him by putting his hand on the Uruguayan’s behind.
Cavani’s first yellow was for complaining with the linesman in the 30th.Cavani entered the match enduring a personal ordeal back in Uruguay, where his father was detained after allegedly driving drunk and being involved in an accident that killed a motorcyclist. Uruguay lost another player in the 88th, when defender Jorge Fucile also was sent off for a second yellow. Uruguay players loudly complained to Brazilian referee Sandro Ricci and a linesman, and the game was stopped for nearly five minutes. Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez was sent off for leaving the coaches’ box.
“We played a good match considering the opponent we were playing against. We were able to limit (their chances),” Tabarez said. “After we went down to 10 men, things became a bit more difficult because we had fewer chances to attack.” Uruguay was already without luis Suarez, who was banned from the tournament for biting Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup last year.The last time Uruguay failed to advance past the quarterfinals was in the 1997 tournament in Bolivia. Uruguay had eliminated the hosts in the quarterfinals of the previous two editions of the Copa America: Argentina in 2011 and Venezuela in 2007.
Chile attacked from the start at the Estadio Nacional Julio Martinez, with Uruguay relying on its defense and trying to find spaces to counterattack. Although Chile kept possession, it struggled to get shots on goal. Isla’s winner came after Uruguay goalkeeper Fernando Muslera tried to clear a cross and the ball went straight to Valdivia. The playmaker passed to Isla, who touched it forward and fired through defenders and into the right corner.