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Javier Pastore had a goal and an assist as Argentina cruised past Paraguay into the finals of the Copa America.
Argentina pulled away from Paraguay with a second-half onslaught to win 6-1 in their Copa America semifinal match and advance to face hosts Chile in the finals.
Goals by Marcos Rojo and Javier Pastore got things started in the first half, then the floodgates opened for Argentina in the second half as they completely outclassed Paraguay and put four goals in during the second 45 minutes.
A Lionel Messi free kick from distance fell right to Rojo’s feet in the 15th minute and the Manchester United defender quickly turned on the ball and blew it past Paraguay keeper Justo Villar.
Just 12 minutes later, Pastore took a pass from Messi and calmly placed a right-footed shot into the left corner of the net to make it 2-0 Argentina.
Just ahead of the stroke of halftime, the Paraguayans’ resilience paid off when Lucas Barrios collected a headed pass from Bruno Valdez and powered a left-footed shot from the top of the box off the outstretched hand of Sergio Romero to cut the lead in half.
Paraguay overcame a 2-0 deficit in their group stage match vs. Argentina to finish in a 2-2 draw, but they couldn’t find enough magic the second time around. Just two minutes into the second half, Pastore played Angel Di Maria through with a perfect ball on the counter-attack and Di Maria placed it just inside the right post for a 3-1 lead.
Six minutes later, Di Maria was once again on the back end of a nice sequence of passes starting with Messi and he volleyed home for his second goal of the game. Sergio Aguero and Gonzalo Higuain added goals in the games final 10 minutes to put the match well beyond reach.
Paraguay will face Peru in the consolation match on Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET, while Argentina and Chile meet at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday to determine the 2015 Copa America champion.
ESPN