HOUSTON
\nGoalkeeper Emiliano Martinez was the hero, saving two penalties and Lionel Messi\u2019s blushes as holders Argentina defeated Ecuador in a penalty shoot-out to book their place in the Copa America semi-finals on Thursday.
\nA Lisandro Martinez header had put world champions Argentina 1-0 up ten minutes before half-time but Kevin Rodriguez headed in a stoppage-time leveller for Ecuador, who had risen to the occasion in front of 69,456 fans at Houston\u2019s NRG Stadium.
\nMessi missed the opening penalty, chipping against the bar, but thanks to heroics from Martinez, Argentina recovered to win the shoot-out 4-2 and progress into the semi-finals where they will face the winner of Friday\u2019s match between Venezuela and Canada.
\nMessi\u2019s \u2018panenka\u2019 miss brought back memories of his miss in the shoot-out loss to Chile in the 2016 Copa final but luckily for him goalkeeper Martinez was in the mood to repeat his own past.
\nHe pulled off superb diving saves to deny Angel Mena and Alan Minda and get his team in front before Nicolas Otamendi slotted home the decisive fourth kick.
\nMartinez had saved three spot-kicks in a 3-2 penalty shootout victory for Argentina over Colombia in the semi-final of the 2021 Copa America and famously saved two in the World Cup final win against France in Qatar.
\nEcuador were left crestfallen after a match in which they had created enough opportunities to have won the game.
\nFelix Sanchez\u2019s team made a bright start, dominating the ball in midfield and stretching the Argentine defence at times.
\nMoises Caicedo had an early opportunity, latching on to a header from Enner Valencia, but his shot was tame and easily dealt with by Argentine keeper Martinez.
\nThen Moises Caicedo threaded a clever pass through to the impressive Jeremy Sarmiento but Martinez was out quick to save with an outstretched foot and Kendry Paez blasted the loose ball over the bar.
\nArgentina gradually got a foothold in the game but it was not until the 28th minute that they had their first opening when Enzo Fernandez headed wide a Nahuel Molina cross from the right.
\nSeven minutes later, they had the lead however, Messi driving in a corner which Alexis Mac Allister met at the near post with a flick-on and Lisandro Martinez arrived with a powerful header that Ecuador keeper Alexander Dominguez was unable to keep out.
\nFernandez soon had a chance to double the lead but fired a left-foot shot wide at the back post and Argentina went in at the break with a single goal lead.
\nEcuador were given a lifeline in the 62nd minute when Rodrigo De Paul was ruled to have handled inside the box but Valencia\u2019s penalty struck the outside of the post.
\nBut in stoppage time, Ecuador stunned the 15-times Copa champions when Kevin Rodriguez glanced in a header from a John Yeboah cross.
\nThere was a VAR review, looking at whether Jordy Caicedo had interfered in an offside position at the back post but the goal stood.
\nMoments later Jordy Caicedo had a great chance to win the game but he glanced a left-wing cross wide from a great, central position.
\nThat meant the drama of a penalty shoot-out and the chance to upset the defending champions slipt away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HOUSTON Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez was the hero, saving two penalties and Lionel Messi\u2019s blushes as holders Argentina defeated Ecuador in a penalty shoot-out to book their place in the Copa America semi-finals on Thursday. A Lisandro Martinez header had put world champions Argentina 1-0 up ten minutes before half-time but Kevin Rodriguez headed in a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":66987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66997,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66973\/revisions\/66997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}