Argentina 1-1 Uruguay (4-5 pens)

Argentine-born goalkeeper Fernando Muslera was the hero for Uruguay as they beat host nation Argentina 5-4 on penalties in an eventful match to progress to the semi-finals of the Copa América.

The World-Cup semi-finalists will now face Peru on Tuesday night in La Plata after la rojiblanca beat Colombia 2-0 after extra time in their Quarter Final earlier in the day.

It looked like Uruguay would do well to make it to extra time with Diego Pérez going from hero to villain in the first half at Santa Fe.

He opened the scoring against the run of play in the 6^th minute, sliding home after Sergio Romero could only parry Martín Caceres’ header into his path to gift the 31 year old his first international goal on his 68^th appearance for his country.

There were doubts as to whether or not Pérez should have been on the pitch after he was booked in the 3rd minute for a horror challenge on Argentina’s captain, Javier Mascherano.

However, he would last only half an hour longer as he picked up a second yellow card shortly before half time for a bodycheck on Gonzalo Higuaín to leave his side with a mountain to climb.

Sergio Aguero, the tournament’s leading goalscorer, tried to find Higuaín as Argentina looked for an equaliser but his slaloming run was brought to an end by a crowd of bodies.

It would be Higuaín who levelled the match, ghosting between the centre backs to head home Lionel Messi’s delightful lob over the top of the Uruguay defence to grab his second goal of the tournament.

In a game littered with fouls, Argentina’s Pablo Zabaleta also found himself in the referee’s notebook along with Caceres and Alvaro Gonzalez.

The sides traded goals which were both cancelled out: Higuaín denied a second goal by the linesman’s flag after he headed home a Messi free-kick and Caceres’ effort was also ruled out by the referee’s assistant.

Uruguay remained a threat from set-pieces and Diego Lugano’s header from 16 yards out hit the crossbar with Romero grasping at thin air, giving Argentina a timely reminder that there was life yet in La Celeste, despite their handicap.

As expected, Argentina made most of the running in the second half with Angel Di Maria shooting over from distance early on but they never took full advantage.

Looking for penetration, Argentina’s manager Sergio Batista brought on Javier Pastore and Carlos Tevez for Di Maria and Aguero.

The desired impact never materialised and the Albiceleste were reduced to shots from range; Lionel Messi tried to grab the game by the scruff of the neck but his shot was comfortably saved by Muslera.

The Lazio goalkeeper was man of the match having made a string of great saves from Higuaín; one of the more impressive efforts coming after the Argentine had spun away from his marker.

In keeping out substitute Tevez’s deflected free-kick and the rebound from Higuaín, the goalkeeper was performing minor miracles as the game moved into injury time.

Mascherano received his marching orders for a needless foul on Luis Suarez by the halfway line to even up proceedings and Uruguay almost capitalised on the equal numbers with Romero saving well when Forlan was played in with seconds left on the clock.

Lugano went close to upsetting the host nation but his header went fractionally over and Forlan put another headed chance wide as the game moved into extra time with everything still to play for.

Fernando Gago picked up the first yellow card of extra time with a trip on Forlan before his participation in the game was ended as an injury saw him replaced by Lucas Biglia.

With even numbers, Uruguay started to commit more men forward and they were almost rewarded as Alvaro Pereira shot narrowly over before Tevez and Pastore repeated the not-so-honourable feat.

Higuaín, a constant thorn in Uruguay’s side, came closest to a goal in the first half of extra time with a quickly-taken effort that caught Muslera out but bounced back off the post.

Forlan put Uruguay’s best chance of extra time wide of Romero’s goal seconds into the second period with Muslera denying Messi minutes later.

A double substitution from Uruguay saw Alvaro Pereira and Egidio Arévalo Ríos hauled off with Walter Gargano and Sebastián Eguren their replacements as time ticked away for both sides.

The nemesis of Argentina and particularly Higuaín, Muslera, denied him again, this time saving from a tight angle. The highly-coveted Pastore stung his palms from the resulting corner as Argentina desperately searched for a winner.

It seemed that a winning goal was inevitable once Messi danced through the defence with a mere four minutes left but he shot straight at the goalkeeper.

The deadlock was not broken so a hard-fought tie and a fantastic football match was to be decided via the cruel lottery that is penalties.

It was Tevez, the player of the people, who would be the fall-guy in the shoot-out, missing Argentina’s third penalty which gave Uruguay an opportunity to progress to their fifth straight semi-final. It was an opportunity that was ruthlessly taken as all five penalty takers scored to set up the semi-final with Peru, leaving many a Uruguayan dreaming of making the final in a week’s time.