Alexis Sanchez put aside a miserable club season with Manchester United as he sent Chile into the Copa America quarter-finals after scoring the winning goal in Friday’s 2-1 win over Ecuador.
Chile began where they had left off in their 4-0 of Japan last Monday, as Jose Fuenzalida put the reigning champions Chile ahead in the eighth-minute as they capitalised on Ecuador's failure to clear a corner, as Fuenzalida sent an angled volley from the edge of the area into the far bottom corner before Ecuador's Enner Valencia equalized for Ecuador from the spot.
Alexis scored the winner, his second in as many games in this year's Copa America in Salvador as Chile joined Colombia as the only teams to qualify for the knock-out stages after their first two games taking his tally for the national team to 43.but Chile finished with 10 men after Gabriel Achilier’s was sent off.
The 30-year-old Sanchez started only nine Premier League matches, scoring just once, in an injury-interrupted season for the Red Devils in which he struggled to make an impact when he did play.
However, he revealed afterwards that he turned his ankle during the first half, aggravating an old injury.
"I think I have a sprain, I hope it’s not too serious. At half-time they strapped it up, I played on with a bit of pain," he said.
Chile top Group C with six points ahead of their Monday clash with Uruguay at iconic Maracana in Rio while Ecuador on the other hand will be looking to avoid elimination after a second straight defeat, knowing they must beat Japan in Belo Horizonte on Monday to stand any chance of progressing.
Speaking about the encounter and the match against Japan, Valencia said;
"We put in a huge effort but we’re making the mistake of switching off and that’s why they scored silly goals,.We’ll try and beat Japan and then see where that takes us."
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