Spurs group stage Copa America round up
By Tom Vinall
Giovani Lo Celso, Cristian Romero, and Rodrigo Bentancur have all finished their group-stage campaigns.
It has been a successful start, with both Lo Celso and Romero's Argentina and Bentancur's Uruguay through to the quarter-finals of this year's Copa America in the United States.
As alluded to, Romero was rested and Lo Celso came into the starting line-up for Argentina's final group game against Peru, where Argentina won 2-0 to secure a perfect group stage campaign; 9 points, 5 goals scored and 0 conceded.
Lo Celso played 66 minutes, in an unremarkable but solid outing. The Spurs midfielder won 5/7 duels, drew 2 fouls, made a clearance, and completed 2/2 long balls (SofaScore).
As mentioned above, Romero was given the night off, as he sat on the bench and watched his counterparts finish the job. Argentina would have finished top of the group even with a Peru victory, but winning is a great habit and they can now take the momentum into the knockout stages, with their star players such as Romero fully fit and rested.
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Despite having the group already all but won, Marcelo Bielsa, in true Bielsa fashion, was not willing to make much, if any at all, rotation for the game against the USA. This meant that Bentancur was on the bench once again. An 11-minute cameo in place of Nicolas de la Cruz was as good as it got for the Spurs man, with no late goal to cap it off on this occasion.
As for the knockouts. Argentina will face off against Ecuador, in a repeat of the 2021 quarter-final, where Argentina were 3-0 victors. Romero missed that game with an injury, although Lo Celso played the first 71 minutes. Bentancur's Uruguay will play the runners-up of Group D, likely to be Colombia or Brazil, although a small chance of it being Costa Rica.
Good luck to all 3 Spurs players in the next round, go well and please don't get injured!