Manchester United’s Facundo Pellistri and Uruguay thumped Bolivia 5-0 to all but book their place in the quarter finals of Copa America.
The 15-time winners dominated the play as they had 18 shots to their opponents four, and nine were on target.
They also had the lion’s share of possession with 60% of the ball.
From a United standpoint, the standout performance came from winger Facundo Pellistri. Although the 22-year-old’s future is still very much in doubt, performances like these could persuade Erik ten Hag that the youthful winger has a future at Old Trafford.
Pellistri terrorized the Bolivian left back the entire game, finishing with a goal and an assist.
He opened the scoring in the eighth minute when he cut inside to bundle the ball home from close range after a switch of play when the ball was played deliciously across the goal for the United winger to pounce.
Goals have never been a huge part of his game but one in a friendly victory over Mexico and now one in the tournament itself could be showing he is finally adding finishing to his game.
He would also grab an assist in the 81st minute when he calmly found Real Madrid’s Federico Valverde to slide in the fourth goal of the match.
In 86 minutes of play, he was awarded a Sofascore rating of 7.6 and had 34 touches of the ball.
He made 18 out of his 21 passes for a pass rate of 86% and two of these were key passes, including his assist.
He was a threat all evening and made three crosses, one of which found its intended target. The Uruguayan also missed another big chance as he could have easily added another goal to his personal tally.
One of the rapid winger’s biggest skillsets is his dribbling and he was successful once out of the four that he attempted.
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The result means that Uruguay have six points from six and are all but through as they top Group C over the USA and Panama, who both have three points.
La Celeste will aim to rubber stamp their progress when they take on the USA on Monday (Tuesday morning UK time) and Pellistri will be aiming to continue the fine form that he has shown this summer to date.
If no winger is purchased, Erik ten Hag may be forced to give him a chance in the starting lineup due to his outstanding play for his country. This can only be to United’s advantage.
However, these impressive performances on a grand scale like as Copa America will only increase a possible transfer value for the Red Devils should United decide to sell him.
