The football rolls on and it’s non stop internationals currently, with the Euros well underway, across the globe in South America, the Copa America is also underway after a similar delay and many, many potential cancelation worries and threats. Despite the unsteady build-up, the tournament is truly underway and some of the games biggest stars are lighting up the continent and the tournament, with Neymar’s Brazil and Messi’s Argentina heavy favourites for the tournament, it could still be up for grabs with Chile, Uruguay and even Columbia providing potential challenges. If, like myself this is one of the first Copa America tournaments you’ve ever truly been interested and captured by, then you’ll be enjoying some of the big matches already been played out in the group stages. With that, let us begin our round-up and review of the two group stages in the tournament, and roll on the knockouts.

Group A

Group A contains possibly the more exciting sides with Argentina battling with tough opponents in Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay and Bolivia. In a group stacked with talent and drama, Argentina led by their latest talisman Messi have been utterly dominant, remaining unbeaten in their 4 games (3W/1D). After an almost slip-up with the 1-1 draw over Chile, they have managed 3 wins on the bounce as they scraped past Uruguay and Paraguay 1-0 and then sealed top spot with a 4-1 win over the already defeated Bolivia. Messi has been in form so far with 2 goals and being well involved in all their matches, and having Sevilla man Gómez netting 2 has been an additional boost. After securing the top spot, they will feel confident in having a real run through to the final and hope that they can finally get over the line to give their main man Messi the international recognition he has been missing and fill the admittedly very limited space in his trophy cabinet.

Elsewhere in the group, Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile all secured qualification, with Uruguay led by striker Cavani doing just enough for 2nd (2W/1D/1L). In 3rd, Paraguay were impressive enough to edge ahead of Chile with 2 wins and 2 losses. Paraguay were strong against Bolivia and Chile, although coming up against the tougher opponents in Argentina and Uruguay showed that they will likely struggle when coming up against potential opponents from group B. Chile were fairly disappointing as they only managed 1 win, 2 draws and a loss in their 4 games. Even in their 1 win, it was only a 1-0 victory over a poor Bolivia side, and it was Blackburn man Brereton who gained the headlines nabbing the winner. In the final spot, and being the side eliminated from Group A, Bolivia can be proud of themselves to have put up a decent fight in several games in the tournament, however with 4 losses from 4, the gulf in quality showed itself and they are the casualties from the group.

Group B

Group B was much more competitive, with all sides picking up points from their 4 games. Brazil topped the group, matching Argentina in Group A, with 3 wins and a draw from their 4 group fixtures. They were however more prolific in front of goal as they bagged 10 (compared to Argentina’s 8) and conceded only 2. Highlights for Brazil will have been their opening 3-0 win over Venezuela and followed this up with a 4-0 over Peru. Their final 2 games were less dominant with a 2-1 win over Colombia and only a 1-1 draw with Ecuador. Neymar matched the goals of Messi by netting twice, however the Brazil side was a free-for-all in terms of goals, with 9 different scorers. Going into the knockouts, Brazil will be full of confidence and feel confident despite being drawn against Chile in the first knockout matchup.

Elsewhere in the group, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador secured the qualification spots, with Peru impressive as they picked up 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss from their fixtures. Despite being battered 4-0 in the opener, they recovered well and picked things up to secure an unbeaten remaining 3 fixtures. Colombia were secure enough yet unremarkable as they won 1, drew 1 and lost twice in their games. The same could be said of Ecuador who failed to even win yet secure qualification by being a stubborn and hard to beat side who drew 3 of their 4, only losing to Colombia 1-0 in their first match. The nation missing out are Venezuela, who drew 2 and lost 2 meaning they were just 1 point away from qualification. It’s tough for Venezuela, however without winning really they can’t be too disappointed to be eliminated at this early stage. With the two biggest sides from each group topping their respective tables, there are some interesting knockout matches ahead where we may just see a slip up or two from some big names and big sides as we steamroll to the final.