Chile's La Roja beat Portugal on penalties to make the 2017 decider

La Roja won their semi-final against Portugal and reached the final of the 2017 Confederations Cup. The Chileans had finished second in Group B, which meant a semi-final against Fernando Santos’s side, but Juan Antonio Pizzi’s men showed great team spirit and knocked the European champions out of the competition.

Portugal started the better of the two teams and pressed their opponents high up the pitch. A few minutes in, Cristiano Ronaldo played a lovely pass to André Silva, but the forward missed disappointingly from a few metres. Chile’s Eduardo Vargas also found himself one on one with Rui Patrício, but the goalkeeper kept his clean sheet intact.

The second half was a rather dull affair. Chile had more of the ball, but neither team managed to create a genuinely good scoring chance. Ronaldo came closest in the 75th minute, when his shot deflected off a defender’s leg and went inches wide.

Both sets of players looked tired in extra time, and the game was played at a slow pace for long spells. At the very end, however, Arturo Vidal hit the post from outside the box and Rodríguez’s follow-up also struck the woodwork, keeping Portugal’s hopes of a final alive.

Claudio Bravo was Chile’s big hero. The Manchester City goalkeeper saved three penalties, securing a comfortable 3-0 win in the shoot-out. At the other end, none of the Chilean takers missed. It meant Chile’s third final at a major international tournament in three years. Chile had won the Copa América twice in a row, in 2015 and 2016, and Pizzi’s side would now try to add another prestigious trophy to the collection.

The shoot-out in Kazan

The semi-final was played in Kazan on 28 June 2017 and finished goalless after 120 minutes. In the shoot-out Arturo Vidal, Charles Aránguiz and Alexis Sánchez all scored. Claudio Bravo saved the kicks of Ricardo Quaresma, João Moutinho and Nani, three in a row, so the shoot-out was over before Cristiano Ronaldo had the chance to take one.

Chile also had a complaint about the officiating. In the second half of extra time, the Iranian referee Alireza Faghani chose not to consult the video assistant referee over a challenge by José Fonte on Francisco Silva, an incident several reports described as a clear penalty.

The road to the semi-final

Chile had reached the last four as runners-up in Group B. They opened with a 2-0 win over Cameroon, drew 1-1 with Germany and then drew 1-1 with Australia, which left them second behind the world champions and set up the meeting with Portugal, the winners of Euro 2016.

The final against Germany

The final took place on 2 July 2017 at the Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg in front of 57,268 spectators, and it was a repeat of the group game against Germany. The only goal came against the run of play in the 20th minute: Marcelo Díaz lost possession on the edge of his own area, Timo Werner ran on to the loose ball and squared it for Lars Stindl to tap into an empty net. Germany held on to win 1-0 and lift the Confederations Cup for the first time.

The end of an era

The defeat in Saint Petersburg was followed by a far heavier blow a few months later. In October 2017, in the last round of South American qualifying for the 2018 World Cup, Chile lost 3-0 to Brazil in São Paulo, with Paulinho and Gabriel Jesus among the scorers. The result left La Roja sixth in the table, level on points with Peru but behind them on goal difference, and out of the World Cup. Pizzi announced that he would step down, and the defeat was widely seen as the close of the most successful period in the history of the national team.