FIFA Confederations Cup 2017: Chile 2-0 Cameroon, 5 Talking Points

4. Chile move up a gear when Alexis Sanchez takes the field

Chile dominated Cameroon for vast periods of the game without making any real inroads (excepting Vargas’ disallowed goal) – they had bucket loads of attacks meet untimely deaths on the wall of Cameroonian defenders massed in front of their penalty box, and the ones that did get through were met by an inspired Fabrice Ondoa. While Edson Puch and Jose Fuenzalida are more than capable footballers who played rather well on the day, neither are Alexis Sanchez. And it showed. After Cameroon weathered the first half storm, the Chilean machine seemed to switch off a touch as they allowed the African champions to get on top of them.

When the Arsenal superstar turned up late in the second half, the match which by then had shifted in Cameroon’s favour abruptly shifted back Chile’s. The Champions of South America cranked it up a notch or three with their best player on the pitch and it was Sanchez himself who provided the breakthrough with a sublime cross (that was thumped in by a very motivated Arturo Vidal).

As good a team as Chile are (as a unit, they are brilliant) it is still that dash of individual quality that truly decides matches and Alexis Sanchez proved that quite decisively on the day.