Riding on Claudio Bravo’s heroics, Chile reached the Confederations Cup final by beating Portugal on penalties.
The Manchester City goalie denied Ricardo Quaresma, Joao Moutinho and Nani to send his team into Sunday’s final after the game ended 0-0 after extra time. On the other hand, Arturo Vidal, Charles Aranguiz and Alexis Sanchez all scored for Chile to set a date with the winner of Germany against Mexico.
Both the teams began the proceeding at Kazan on a bright note, with Chile going close after six minutes through Eduardo Vargas. The attacked had latched onto a pass from Arsenal star Alexis Sanchez but Rui Patricio did well to deny him. Portugal responded soon with their captain Cristiano Ronaldo teeing up Andre Silva at the back post only to see Bravo denying them the lead.
But the bright start to the match soon turned dull and the only other opportunity before the break fell to Aranguiz who wasted the opportunity with a wild slice on the half-volley. Neither of the sides was willing to take the attack to the opposition in the second half but Chile was looking the likely team to go ahead.
The regulation time ended with the scorecard reading nil-nil but Chile upped their ante in extra-time. The first chance of fell to Sanchez but his header narrowly missed the target. The Copa America champions were then denied by woodwork twice in quick succession when a thunderous shot from Vidal bounced back off the right-hand post before Rodriguez’s improvised effort suffered the same fate.
Chelsea continued to press but failed to break the deadlock before Bravo’s heroics sent them to the final.
Here is how Twitter reacted to the match:
28th June 2016 – Chile beat Argentina
28th June 2017 – Chile beat Portugal pic.twitter.com/TT0yK2iJaI
— FootballFunnys (@FootballFunnnys) June 29, 2017
#PORvCHI Claudio Bravo be like… pic.twitter.com/ZQPfyuDzJu
— Sean_M (@sean29murphy) June 28, 2017
Ronaldo wanted to shine by kicking the last penalty kick, act like he won the match for his team, but Claudio Bravo had other Plans #PORvCHI
— Thakhani R (@Ralufhe_TP) June 28, 2017
Pep Guardiola watching Claudio Bravo deny Portugal for 120 minutes and then save three penalties.#PORCHI pic.twitter.com/m3hCPaMXxF
— ESPN UK (@ESPNUK) June 28, 2017
Something about Claudio Bravo making more saves in the penalty shoot-out than he did for City LMFAO hahahahahaha pic.twitter.com/oUBCBUk7o6
— ODDSbible (@ODDSbible) June 28, 2017
https://twitter.com/BlueCitizen007/status/880191450868207616
https://twitter.com/BUSQXETS1/status/880211293743042560
Cristiano Ronaldo watching on as Chile keeper Claudio Bravo saves three penalties to knock Portugal out of the Confederations Cup… #PORCHI pic.twitter.com/t7GWkHAfeP
— 888sport (@888sport) June 28, 2017
https://twitter.com/ttowshik/status/880244888817745920
Portugal have displaced England as the worst penalty takers of all time #ConfedCup
— Dean Banister (@dean_banister) June 29, 2017
https://twitter.com/101greatgoals/status/880180374734688260