Match Report: Chile beat Argentina 4-1 on penalties to win Copa America 2015

Alexis Sanchez put in a performance of a lifetime in a goalless 120 minutes before scoring the penalty that sealed Chile's Copa America triumph over Argentina. The hosts won the shoot-out 4-1 to register their first ever triumph in the American tournament.

The World Cup runners-up will rue the chances they missed, but Chile will not care about their opportunities that went by – football can be cruel like that.

Things may have been different if Lionel Messi had a better game for Argentina, but somehow he was not his usual self as he ghosted through the game. Argentina lacked the cutting edge, just like they lacked it all tournament bar the 6-1 thumping of Paraguay. In the final against Chile, normal service resumed and Argentina were back to being toothless.

The hosts started the game well, better than many of the games in the lead up to the final, targeting balls in behind Marcos Rojo, having seemingly identified him as the weak link in Argentina's defense. Mauricio Isla and Alexis Sanchez looked particularly dangerous down Chile's right with Valdivia orchestrating their attacks as usual.

The first chance of the game fell to Sergio Aguero within the opening 5 minutes as Argentina broke from deep within their own half. Javier Pastore won the ball and played it out to Leo Messi who slipped in a ball into Aguero's path, but the City man could only toe-poke it to Claudio Bravo.

The best chance of the opening 10 minutes fell to Valdivia just inside Argentina's box in the 8th minute, but he looked for Vargas rather than take the shot on his own and his pass was intercepted.

Chile's foolhardiness

Chile seemed to be inviting trouble with their dangerously high line. Argentina did well to spot it and tried to play a few balls in behind Chile's defense but none of them came to fruition.

While most of Chile's play in the opening 20 minutes included some sublime passing and give and gos to get in behind the Argentine backline, Eduardo Vargas provided a different angle with a couple of early long shots

Jorge Sampaoli's side looked more confident in the opening 20 minutes but seemed to tire ever so slightly as Argentina began to get a foothold in the game.

Chile had their fair share of chances through Arturo Vidal, Alexis and Vargas. But they had their moments of madness too.

Mauricio Isla in an attempt to stem an Argentina counter-attack took out Angel Di Maria in a no holds barred tackle but was not booked for the challenge. While Tata Martino side created their early chances came from counters, Chile's slowing down in pace meant that they went in late on tackles at times gathering three cautions to Silva, Marcelo Diaz and Gary Medel, whose particularly poor kick to Leo Messi's midriff was lucky not to be punished with worse.

The entire game was played with a high tempo thanks to the relentless pressing form both sides. While Chile seemed the more resilient defense of the two, their backline found themselves almost isolated against the deadly Argentine attack at times but defensive cover was never slow to come for them.

Many chances, few results

One of the moments of the game was Claudio Bravo's save from Leo Messi 's freekick from Argentina's right flank. It was met by Aguero's head and saved at point blank range by the Barcelona man in the 20th minute.

Just minutes after that, Vargas went through on goal, outrunning Otamendi but just as he set himself to shoot Mascherano's incoming tackle seemed to put him off enough and he blew it way over. A little more composure there and he could have had the golden boot on his own along with Chile's lead.

Arguably a huge blow to Argentinean hopes came early when Di Maria seemed to have pulled his hamstring at the end of a superb run from midfield and that ended his Copa America early. Ezequiel Lavezzi his replacement in the 29th minute of the game.

Chile insisted all game on playing the ball out from behind despite some pressing from Argentina high up the pitch. They often ended up in corners in their own half and were forced to clear wildly at times.

A couple of chances at both ends on the brink of half-time summed up the game. Alexis bent in a strike as the ball rolled in to him but Romero was behind it with ease at the 45-minute mark.

The Argentine goalkeeper's throw put Argentina in gear as they mounted a dangerous looking attack that saw Pastore running close to Chile's touchline. He managed to pull it back into the path of an onrushing Lavezzi whose shot was straight at Bravo who punched it away.

The second half

Chile started the second half as they had the first, with blistering pace. Within seconds of the restart, Alexis stole the ball from Otamendi at the edge of Argentina's box and looped it across to Vidal whose header was saved by Romero.

Once again the Chilean attack saw them repeatedly go down their right flank and put Rojo in trouble. Eventually the Manchester United defender got a challenge badly wrong and was booked for it. Mascherano immediately followed him into the book for a seemingly deliberate handball.

Having gained a foothold in the game towards the end of the first half, Argentina ceded control and Chile had their verve back. Valdivia and Sanchez the driving force behind their attacks

But La Albiceleste weren't gone for long they once again began to find their feet in the game around the 57 minute mark. Although the game began to get scrappier.

Sanchez carried over his superb performance in the first half into the second as he repeatedly danced in behind the Argentine defensive line and tormented them with shots and balls across the box. There was an injury scare for Chile as Martin Demichelis inadvertently caught the Juve man in the knee in his follow through from a clearance. The Chilean midfielder, however, made his way back onto the pitch after a few minutes of treatment.

A couple of changes rang in as Aguero was replaced by Gonzalo Higuain and Chile made their first substitution as Valdivia went off at the 74-minute mark in a surprising move and Matias Fernandez came on.

Chile's play down the right hand side was mesmerising at times, Rojo and Otamendi at times looking out of their depth by the class of Sanchez.

Tata Martino put all his cards on the table when he took off Pastore to bring on Banega for his last substitution.

Arguably, Chile's best chance of the half, albeit a difficult one, fell to Sanchez when a ball was played in over the top and Sanchez latched onto it but shot wide with his first time effort.

In the 85th minute, Lavezzi put the ball in the back of the net as Leo Messi's ball over the top found him but he was offside. As the game got more stop and start towards the end, a yellow card was shown to Aranguiz for barging into Banega

The last ten minutes saw Argentina rallying to attack and Chile hoofing the ball. Their best chance came at the end of the game in the last action of the 90 minutes. Argentina were on the counter in stoppage time at the end of the game Messi played it into Lavezzi's path who delivered a low cross for Higuain who could only put it into the side-netting from close range as he stretched to reach it.

The final is the only Copa America game that can go into extra time, and it did.

A dull extra time

Within minutes of the start of extra time, Ever Banega went in the book for kicking out at Isla, having lost the ball to him.

Chile made their second change, bringing on Manchester United Youngster Angelo Henriquez on for Vargas who will share the golden boot with Peru's Paolo Guerrero

Neither team created much during the whole of extra time despite some spaces opening up because of the tired legs but no team would exploit them as the game crawled to extra time.

Right at the end of the first half in extra time Claudio Bravo's long throw was misjudged by Mascherano but it fell perfectly for Sanchez who ran toward's Romero's goal with only Zabaleta to distract him. He took a snapshot that was only slightly above Argentina's goal.

Neither side seemed to have the strength to break the deadlock in normal or extra time and the game would go to penalties.

Penalties

The first two penalties by Chilean substitute Matias Fernandez and Argentina's Leo Messi were both scored with good strikes to level the score 1-1.

Arturo Vidal then stepped up for Chile to deliver the goods. Romero got a touch to his shot but it managed to squeeze through from under the Argentine keeper.

It was then Higuain's turn to put Argentina level but the pressure was too much for him as he shot too high and Argentina's finals hoodoo threatened to strike again.

Aranguiz then drilled his shot low into the corner to make it 3-1 in the favour of Chile with Argentina's Ever Banega stepping up with a chance to make it 3-2 but his poorly taken penalty was saved by Bravo keeping the score 3-1 and putting Chile on the brink of glory.

Who else but Alexis Sanchez stepped up to take the spot-kick. he had been magnificent all game and had the opportunity to write Chile's name in history books and he did not disappoint, scoring a panenka to seal the title for the Chileans.

As Sanchez wheeled away peeling off his jersey and twirling it at his side in celebration of Chile's first ever major title victory in front of the throngs of home supporters in the stadium, Argentina were left to ponder their disastrous recent history in tournament finals.

The wounds for Argentina will run deep but the night would belong to Chile as they would stamp their authority on by all means the favourites coming into the tournament to win the Copa America 2015.