Chile will face the rivals Peru in the first semifinal of the Copa America 2015 at National Stadium, Santiago on Monday. The rivalry of both these team is known as Clasico del Pacifico. While defending Champions Uruguay and Brazil both are out of the competition, the home team Chile and Argentina are firm favourites now to win the competition.
Chile had a 1-0 win against the Uruguayans after a bad tempered quarter final. They will be missing Gonzalo Zara who was red carded after a prod with Cavani while poking his finger at the back. Chile has asked to reduce the suspension to CONMEBOL. Peru on the other side looked impressive after beating Bolivia comprehensively 3-1.
Paolo Guerrero had been the star for Peru enjoying the most goals scorer in the tournament with Arturo Vidal. Jara’s absence will boost Peru’s forward more. Chile is better on the books though, winning eight of their 10 previous meetings with Peru but lose the last World Cup Qualifier in 2013. Chile and Peru last meet in a friendly last year where Chile won 3-0. The match was quite rough and the rivalry will continue the same way.
The South American neighbors will now meet once again in the tournament after they played a 2-2 draw in the group stage. Two time champions Peru will look to proceed to the final by boasting on their attack. Chile and Peru had a sweet rivalry when Chile prevented Peru to qualify for the World Cup in 1974 and Peru returned the favour in 1978. The war of words had already been started.
Head to Head statistics
=>In Copa America
Matches – 15
Chile won – 10
Peru won – 3
=>Overall
Matches played – 74
Chile won- 40
Largest victory- Peru 6-0 Chile
Probable XI
Chile – Claudio Bravo, Gary Medel, Mauricio Isla, Eugenio Mena, Miiko Albornoz, Marcelo Diaz, Charles Aranguiz, Arturo Vidal, Jorge Valdivia, Alexis Sanchez, Eduardo Vargas
Peru- Juan Manuel Vargas, Luis Advincula, Carlos Zambrano, Carlos Ascues, Carlos Lobaton, Josepmir Balon, Christian Cueva, Joel Sanchez, Jefferson Farfan, paolo Guerrero.
Prediction- Chile 2 : 1 Peru
