Outstanding Messi form, Jesus' terrible foul and sex scandal in the Chilean national team: what happens at the America's Cup on football

Title defense by tournament hosts

One of the main favorites of the America's Cup on football, which takes place in parallel with Euro 2020, is the Brazilian national team.

The Pentacampeons have an excellent opportunity to win the continental home championship two years later.

True, initially the team was not happy with the decision at the last moment to move the tournament to the country (the competition was to be held in Argentina and Colombia).

According to media reports, the players even discussed with the local federation the possibility of a boycott.

Allegedly, for a possible refusal to participate in his post, the head coach of the team, Tite, could lose.

However, in the end, it did not come to this, and the owners took the start at the home championship.

Moreover, all the stars were included in the application: Alisson Becker, Ederson, Marquinhos, Casemiro, Gabriel Jesus, Roberto Firmino and others.

With such a selection of performers, the team is almost obliged to take the trophy.

Of course, the yellow-greens are led by Neymar, who is obsessed with the idea of ​​breaking Pele's record for the most goals for the national team from South America (77). The PSG striker currently has 68 in his assets. He added two at the current tournament, which started with a shock. In the first two matches of the group stage, the striker scored twice: he converted a penalty in a meeting with bloodless Venezuela (3: 0) and upset Peru (4: 0). However, after that, Neymar did not score. He also gave two assists.

In general, the Brazilians have so far won four wins and one draw with Ecuador in a meaningless match of the last round of the group stage.

Tite's wards, first of all, traditionally rely on reliable defense.

As a result, they have only two conceded goals.

In the quarterfinals, the Pentacampeons beat Chile with a minimum score thanks to a goal by Lucas Packeta.

At the same time, the favorite almost half had to act in the minority after the direct removal of Gabriel Jesus.

The attacker committed a really terrible foul: he hit Eugenio Menu in the face with a straight leg in a jump.

Confident gait of the Argentina national team

Perhaps only Argentina, led by Lionel Messi, can prevent the Brazilians from winning the America's Cup for the second time in a row.

The 34-year-old is well aware that for him this tournament is perhaps the last chance to win a trophy with the national team, and is doing everything possible to end it on a positive note.

Even unresolved issues with Barcelona do not interfere with the striker's shine in Brazil.

In early July, he ended an agreement with the Catalans, and a new one has not yet been signed.

In five matches of the championship of the continent, Messi scored four goals (one from the penalty spot) and gave the same number of assists.

Lionel is the best player in the tournament both in one and the other.

Moreover, in the first three meetings, the six-time winner of the Ballon d'Or scored only two points for performance, but then dispersed.

The quarterfinal confrontation with Ecuador (3: 0) turned out to be indicative.

The forward first helped Rodrigo De Paul and Lautaro Martinez to distinguish themselves, and in the end converted a free kick.

In the semifinals, Argentina will meet with Colombia, and in the decisive match it has every chance of crossing with Brazil.

Messi, in parallel, continues to break records: he bypassed Javier Mascherano in the number of matches for the national team (149), overtook Cristiano Ronaldo in the number of free-kick goals (58) and came close to Pele with 76 balls for the South American national team.

Colombia and Peru wins on penalties

But the Uruguayans became one of the main disappointments of the tournament.

Oscar Tabares brought an age-old team to the Cup, the main stars of which were Fernando Muslera, Diego Godin, Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani.

The fact that four of them turned 138 years old is enough.

In the first two matches, the “charrua” scored only one point, but in subsequent meetings they won not without difficulty the modest Bolivia (2: 0) and Paraguay thanks to Cavani's penalty kick (1: 0).

Demonstrating the most boring football, the Uruguayans scored a goalless draw with Colombia in the quarterfinals.

As a result, the fate of the confrontation was decided in a penalty shootout.

The opponent's goalkeeper David Ospina parried the shots of Jose Jimenez and Matias Vigny and led his team to the next round.

It is gratifying that the indispensable footballer for the Colombians remains Zenit's defensive player Vilmar Barrios.

At the current tournament, he played all the matches in full.

The midfielder will be the only RPL representative in the America's Cup semi-finals.

Suddenly, the Peruvians - the current silver medalists of the tournament - made their way into the four strongest teams of the continent.

The Incas arrived in Brazil in an extremely modest line-up.

At the last moment, local legends Jose Paolo Guerrero and Jefferson Farfan were not included in the application.

And the main star of the team was the naturalized Italian striker Gianluca Lapadula.

He led the team in the quarterfinals.

In the scoring shootout with Paraguay (3: 3), the Benevento forward scored the second goal of his team, and in the penalty shootout he took responsibility for the first attempt of the Peruvians and coped with the task brilliantly.

In the future, the opponents were not so confident in taking the penalty kick.

So, Anthony Silva made two saves, and the Paraguayans shot wide twice.

In the end, everything was decided by the misfire of Alberto Espinola, with whose shot Pedro Gallese coped.

The Peru national team made it to the semifinals, but it seems that this is the ceiling for it in 2021, since it will be extremely difficult to stop the star Brazilians.

The outbreak of coronavirus in the Venezuelan national team

Unfortunately, this tournament turns out to be extremely problematic.

Initially, it was supposed to be held in Colombia and Argentina in the summer of 2020, but due to the coronavirus, it was first postponed for a year, then Colombia dropped out of the organizers, and after that Argentina did not dare to organize competitions either.

Brazil again had to take responsibility.

The hosts tried to do everything to protect the participants from infection in the conditions of the rampant COVID-19 on the continent.

But the efforts were in vain.

Just a couple of days before the start of the championship, seven players of the Venezuelan national team passed positive tests at once.

Later this figure increased.

As a result, Jose Peseiro had to make do with the forces of reservists and young players.

In the group stage, the bloodless team scored only two points and took the last place.

And already during the tournament, the press service of the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) announced 140 positive tests in the ranks of the Cup participants.

True, it was mainly about the representatives of the service personnel, and outbreaks similar to the Venezuelan ones were avoided.

The barber's mysterious visit to the Chileans

At the same time, not all football players are ready to comply with the strict rules established by the organizers, and to live virtually in isolation.

So, the Chileans distinguished themselves with a minus sign.

According to media reports, seven players of the team, including Arturo Vidal and Gary Medel, violated the sanitary protocol and invited the girls to the hotel.

It was also reported that the angry head coach Manuel Lasarte allegedly demanded to expel the guilty from the national team, and in case of refusal, he was ready to leave himself.

However, the Chilean Football Federation did not confirm the reliability of the incident and said that the players, in violation of the rules, took a hairdresser to the hotel, who, despite a negative PCR test, should not have contacted them.