Argentina 4-0 Peru
Monday, 9 July 2007 08:49Argentina continued the high-scoring trend in the Copa America quarter-finals as a second-half salvo saw Alfio Basile's side thrash Peru 4-0 with Liverpool's Javier Mascherano among the scorers.
A Juan Roman Riquelme double plus goals from Lionel Messi and Mascherano saw Argentina book a semi-final date with Mexico in Puerto Ordaz on Wednesday after they thrashed Paraguay 6-0 earlier in the day.
A frustrating opening 45 minutes for Argentina ended goalless as Diego Milito failed to make any impact against the Peruvian defence.
However, Basile brought on Manchester United target Carlos Tevez for Milito during the interval and that made the difference as Riquelme and Messi came into their own.
Riquelme made the breakthrough two minutes after half-time as a nice move involving the midfielder and Tevez finished with him beating Leao Butron with a left-foot strike.
Tevez hit the crossbar with a header five minutes later before Riquelme turned provider after 61 minutes,
The 29-year-old played in Messi with a beautiful ball and the Barcelona player nutmegged Butron to double Argentina's lead.
The third came in the 74th minute when Tevez fed Messi and despite the latter's shot being parried by Butron, Reds midfielder Mascherano pounced for his second of the tournament.
Argentina completed the scoring with five minutes to go when Tevez beat his man and found Riquelme, who coolly slotted past Butron for his second of the game.
