CHICLAYO, July 18: Copa America hosts Peru were dumped out of the tournament at the quarterfinal stage on Saturday when Argentina beat them 1-0 with a brilliant Carlos Tevez free kick.
Colombia will meet Argentina in Tuesday's semifinal in Lima after two quick goals before halftime, the first from teenager Abel Aguilar, gave them a 2-0 win over rank outsiders Costa Rica in Trujillo.
Tevez, 20, scored his first international goal in the 61st minute, only three minutes after replacing Andres D'Alessandro, to silence a partisan 25,000 crowd in Chiclayo.
Argentina survived despite having captain Roberto Ayala sent off for a second bookable offence in the 82nd minute. Argentina had slightly the better of the first half and just about deserved their win in a rough and bad-tempered game.
Paraguayan referee Carlos Amarilla, who always likes to let the game flow, overlooked a number of tackles which would have been judged fouls by most other referees. Peru sorely missed Bayern Munich striker Claudio Pizarro, who is out of the tournament with a head injury, and teenager Jefferson Farfan, who was suspended.
Andres Mendoza was again frustrated as he completed his 11th international without scoring. Colombia's match was evenly balanced until the 41st minute when 19-year-old Aguilar rifled home Elkin Murillo's cross for his second goal in consecutive games.
Tressor Moreno effectively finished the match as a contest when he won and converted a penalty two minutes into first-half injury time after being fouled by goalkeeper Ricardo Gonzalez. The other two quarterfinals were scheduled to be played on Sunday when Paraguay face Uruguay in Tacna and Brazil play Mexico in Piura. -Reuters
