We haven’t really been paying much attention to the (controversial) Copa América going on in Colombia Argentina Brazil at the moment, but with practically no Chelsea involvement, that’s perhaps not too surprising.
But that changed late last night as Thiago Silva returned to competitive action for the first time since picking up an injury and having to be withdrawn before half-time in the Champions League final nearly three weeks ago. The 36-year-old’s inclusion in the Brazil squad was thus a bit of a surprise, but it would appear that the injury was indeed not too severe.
Silva played the full 90 yesterday, as Brazil waltzed to a 4-0 win over Peru, making it two easy wins from two, with seven goals scored and none conceded thus far. With Argentina far from impressive in their 1-1 draw against Chile to start their campaign, it’s hard to see anyone other than Brazil and their absolutely stacked team winning this tournament.
37 - Brazil, with the 4-0 win vs Peru, has scored 2+ goals in 37 out of the 56 games under Tite; 66% of the games scoring more than one goal (W36 D1). Abundance. pic.twitter.com/4PgXzQfLE3
— OptaJoao (@OptaJoao) June 18, 2021
Earlier in the day, Euro 2020 rolled on as well, with Andriy Shevchenko’s Ukraine grabbing a 2-1 win over North Macedonia thanks to two first-half goals, Netherlands easing to a 2-0 win over Austria, and in the middle game, Belgium coming from behind to beat Denmark, 2-1, on a most emotional day in Copenhagen.
Denmark, imbued by the fighting spirit of Christian Eriksen and buoyed by a raucous home crowd, took the early lead but simply could not find a second goal despite outshooting Belgium 21-to-6. But Belgium made their individual qualities count when it mattered the most, with goals from Thorgan Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne propelling the FIFA No.1-ranked team into the knockout round. De Bruyne also picked up an assist, while Eden Hazard looked as good and as healthy as he has in a long while, which was certainly nice to see.
Andreas Christensen played the full 90 for the Danes, first in a back-three than just partnering Simon Kjær as the home side looked for a late equalizer. Martin Braithwaite did hit the woodwork late on before squandering a glorious last-minute opportunity as Denmark gave Belgium all they could handle.