July 2001 Sport News Headlines

Tuesday, July 24, 2001 - Web posted at 12:41:42 GMT

Uruguay and Mexico to meet in Copa semis

BOGOTA - Uruguay showed improvement compared to the group stage on Sunday night and reached the semi-finals of the Copa America with a surprise 2-1 comeback victory over Costa Rica.

Pablo Lima scored a late winner for Uruguay in Armenia to set up a semi-final date tomorrow with Mexico, who earlier in the day cruised to a 2-0 win against Chile.

The other two quarter-finals, Colombia vs.

Peru and two-times defending champions Brazil vs.

Honduras, were scheduled for last night.

Uruguay played a mediocre tournament in the preliminary round, but improved in the pouring rain once Costa Rica took a 1-0 lead from Paulo Wanchope's fifth strike of the tournament in the 50th.

Rodrigo Lemos levelled 10 minutes later on a penalty kick and Costa Rica knew they were running out of luck when another goal from the Manchester City striker Wanchope was disallowed for offside.

Their fate was sealed in the 87th when Lima fired home a low 20-metres freekick through the defensive wall for the winner.

While Uruguay left it late, dominant Mexico sealed their win in Pereira early on in front of 25 000 fans.

Jesus Arellano opened the scoring in the 17th minute and the damage for Chile could have been worse had the referee not disallowed two further goals from the impressive striker in the third and 27th.

Chile rarely threatened while Mexico's only problem was wasting a series of first rate chances before Daniel Osorno wrapped up matters in the 79th minute.

The central American teams of Mexico, Costa Rica and Honduras are playing at the South American championships by invitation.

Costa Rica and Honduras are standing in for Canada and Argentina, who both declined to play when the event went ahead on short notice after originally been put back until 2002 due to political violence in the host country Colombia. - Nampa-Sapa-DPA

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