by Nia Griffiths
After scoring the winning penalty against Argentina in the final of the Copa America tournament, Alexis Sanchez claimed they knew they were going to win all along.
Chile have waited 99 years to be successful in a competition that means so much to their nation. This year, they were the hosts and if there were ever going to win, now was the time.
Alexis featured heavily in Copa America 2015 for his national team, playing the entirety of all but one match, in which he only played one half against Bolivia. He scored one goal and assisted one in six matches, not including his all important winning penalty.
Speaking after the match, the 26-year-old was full of praise for him team, saying, “This is really a great generation, we deserve this.”
He went on to reveal how they’d known they were going to win. “We talked about it in Brazil that we were going to win the Copa America,” Alexis said.
Chile had a reasonable run in World Cup Brazil 2014, only getting eliminated in the knockout stages by the hosts in extra time. Being so close to success obviously gave the Chilean team a taste for blood and made them hungrier than ever to win the Copa America – hopefully this rubs off on Alexis next season.