Uruguay have the history to hit Copa América heights against Chile | Jonathan Wilson

[Jonathan Wilson]

Jorge Sampaoli’s squad may have scored more goals than other teams in the tournament but his counterpart Óscar Washington Tabárez can capitalise on the hosts’ shortfall at the back in their quarter-finalChile have scored more than twice as many goals as anybody else in this Copa América. They will be playing at home in front of 40,000 red-shirted fans. They have played with a verve and a fluidity nobody else in this tournament has matched and, if anything, Arturo Vidal’s drink-driving charge, which could have been a destabilising influence, seems to have given them an enhanced sense of purpose. Uruguay scraped through their group in third place, having scored only two goals. Other sides in their position might have approached Wednesday night’s quarter-final like lambs to the slaughter but not Óscar Washington Tabárez’s team. This is the sort of situation Uruguay have traditionally relished.
“Every time we play the hosts,” said the midfielder Egidio Arévalo Rios, “we put them out.” Four years ago, despite being reduced to 10 men before half-time, they beat Argentina on penalties in Santa Fe in the quarter-final. Four years before that, they beat Venezuela 4-1 in the quarter-final in San Cristóbal. The habit, however, goes back long before the reign of Tabárez. In 1999, they beat Paraguay on penalties in the quarter-final in Asunción. More famously, they beat Argentina 1-0 in the semi-final in Buenos Aires in 1987, on 9 July, Argentina’s national day. The greatest of all such victories, of course, came in 1950, when Uruguay beat Brazil 2-1 to pinch the World Cup from them, the Maracanazo.
Related: Copa América quarter-final previews
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