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Argentina destroy Brazil to storm into football final
Published on Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 20:51, Updated on Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 21:02 in section
Tags: Beijing Olympics, Soccer , Beijing
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Beijing: Two quickfire goals from Sergio Aguero powered defending champions Argentina into the Olympic final as they put the sword to South American rivals Brazil in a 3-0 win at the Workers' Stadium on Tuesday.
Argentina will face a repeat of their 1996 Atlanta final against Nigeria in Saturday's gold medal match at the National Stadium on Saturday.
Nigeria, who defeated Argentina 3-2 in Atlanta, qualified for the Beijing decider after hammering Belgium 4-1 in the earlier semi-final played in Shanghai.
It was a wretched night for Brazil who finished with nine men with Liverpool midfielder Lucas and substitute Thiago Neves both sent off for ugly fouls on Argentina's Javier Mascherano late in the second half.
Atletico Madrid's Aguero broke the deadlock seven minutes after the interval when Angel Di Maria's pass appeared to strike his upper arm and flew into the net.
Aguero scored his second goal five minutes later after Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi released defender Pablo Zabaleta on the right and his pass was slotted home from close range with the Brazilian defence in a shambles.
Skipper and over-age midfielder Juan Riquelme killed off the Brazilians with a 76th minute penalty after Aguero was brought down by Bayern Munich defender Breno.
It went from bad to worse for Brazil with Lucas and Thiago Neves both losing their cool and given straight red cards for chopping down Mascherano inside the last nine minutes.
Brazil's hopes vanished when crowd favourite Ronaldinho's free kick slammed into the upright and a follow-up goal was disallowed for offside just after Aguero's second goal.
Yet again Brazil, five-time World Cup champions, leave the Olympics without a gold medal and pressure is expected to build on their coach Carlos Dunga, who has now lost five games out of 36 games at the helm of Selecao, considered unacceptable for Brazil's high expectations.
Argentina, brimming with young talent, ripped their great rivals apart in the second half to ensure they will defend the Olympic title they won against South Americans Paraguay in Athens four years ago.
It was cat and mouse early as both South American adversaries gave no quarter in fierce close-marking exchanges, especially on opposing game-breakers Messi and Ronaldinho with Argentine great Diego Maradona watching on from the stands.
Argentina had the better chances, mainly when Messi was involved, nipping into tackles and showcasing his electrifying sharp acceleration.
Messi's fellow striker partner Aguero fired a sizzler just wide into the side-netting in the 12th minute and Messi almost put Aguero in but his pass went behind him after 33 minutes.
The Barcelona superstar almost broke the deadlock nearing halftime when he shook off two tackles and wriggled into a scoring position only for his shot to be deflected away by Brazilian goalkeeper Renan.
Uruguayan referee Martin Vazquez was kept busy issuing a total of seven yellow cards -- four to Brazil and three for Argentina.
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