Canada advance to Copa QF in 1st appearance

Canada played out a dour goalless Copa América draw with 10-man Chile to claim second place in Group A and progress to the quarterfinals in their first appearance, while the Chileans finished third to exit in the group stage for the first time since 2004.

The draw moved Canada up to four points in Group A, five behind leaders Argentina, who had already qualified for the quarterfinals. Two-times champions Chile ended with two points and Peru finished bottom with one.

Chile, who needed to win and have other results go their way, had their uphill task made even harder after Gabriel Suazo was shown a second yellow card in the 27th minute for bringing down Richie Laryea.

The red card was protested angrily by Chile’s players, who criticised the refereeing after the match.

“CONMEBOL has to be a little more efficient and learn from what Europe is like. It is no excuse, but refereeing like that makes you angry. A red card ruins the whole game,” Chile forward Alexis Sanchez said.

“I apologise to the people for this elimination, but we are going to do everything to go to the World Cup.”

Chile also felt aggrieved after Canada defender Moise Bombito appeared to elbow Rodrigo Echeverria in the fifth minute of the match but VAR did not review the incident.

Captain Claudio Bravo, sidelined through injury, shared a video of the incident on X, saying: “It is unbelievable that with the technology that exists today in soccer, they can screw you over in this way.

“It is very hard to understand, it is impossible to compete against this. We leave with our heads held high, we gave everything!”

In a game where chances were few and far between, Chile goalkeeper Gabriel Arias did well to keep out shots from Canada’s Stephen Eustaquio and Tajon Buchanan, while Canada stopper Maxime Crepeau made a smart save to deny an awkward deflected effort from Alexis Sanchez.

Canada thought they had taken the lead in the second minute of stoppage time through substitute Tani Oluwaseyi, but the goal was ruled out for offside. 

After advancing to the quarterfinals, Canada will now trying to become the fourth team to win more than one match in their first Copa América appearance. Uruguay won twice in 1916. Mexico won twice in 1993 and Honduras notched three victories in 2001.

Chile concluded its Copa America group stage without head coach Ricardo Gareca, who was handed a one-match suspension because he was late in bringing on a player at half-time in a loss to Argentina on Tuesday.

Information from Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.