Copa at its worst – and its best

The quarter-finals were the 2019 Copa at its worst, with a number of factors congealing in order to produce a dismal spectacle.

The format of the competition, where just four teams were eliminated in the group phase, make it possible to go through to the knockout stage having done very little. There is also the fact that the quarter-finals go straight to penalties after 90 minutes, which serves as an aid to the spoilers. And then there is the state of the pitches, some of which in this competition were very disappointing. As Lionel Messi commented, “the ball is jumping around like a rabbit” – a further difficulty for those sides trying to force