RIO DE JANEIRO: Defending champions Brazil, despite down to 10 men, did well to hold off determined Chile 1-0 on Friday and book a Copa America semi-final showdown with Peru.

Second-half substitute Lucas Paqueta made an instant impact, finding a gap in Chile's defense and firing into the back of the net in the 47th minute to put Brazil up 1-0.

Less than two minutes later, however, Brazil was reduced to 10 men when Gabriel Jesus's reckless high kick caught Eugenio Mena in the face and drew a straight red card.

Chile couldn't capitalize on the man advantage, no matter how hard they tried.

Eduardo Vargas thought he'd grabbed the equalizer in the 62nd with a close-range shot, but VAR confirmed the offside call was correct.

In the 69th, Mena's cross from the left found Ben Brereton, whose looping header had Brazilian goalkeeper Ederson wrong-footed but caromed off the crossbar.

Ederson came up with another big save in the 78th as Chile battled desperately for an equalizer. Carlos Palacios went for broke five minutes into injury time with an attempt from the top of the box that sailed over the crossbar.

Brazil's best first-half chance came after 20 minutes when Neymar found Roberto Firmino at Claudio Bravo's far post, but the Liverpool striker couldn't convert.

Ederson was soon called on and dived right to save a shot from Vargas after the Chilean striker shook off Thiago Silva.

Jesus, played in by Neymar, nearly fired Brazil ahead shortly before halftime, but Chilean keeper Claudio Bravo tipped his shot over the bar.

With the victory, Brazil set up a rematch of 2019 final in which they beat Peru 3-1.

Peru punched their semi-final ticket earlier Friday, beating Paraguay 4-3 on penalties after playing to a 3-3 draw in regular time in Goiania.

The remaining quarter-finals will be played on Saturday when Argentina takes on Ecuador, and Uruguay faces Colombia.

FT: Brazil 1-0 Chile

Key Stats:

• Brazil have won their last 5 games against Chile in the CONMEBOL Copa América. During this period Brazil scored 12 goals and only conceded once. Furthermore, they have never been beaten by Chile on home soil in the competition (3 wins, 1 draw).
• Brazil failed to score against Chile in only one of their 22 meetings at the CONMEBOL Copa América (17 wins, 2 draws, 3 losses). This came in Brazil’s biggest defeat against Chile, a 4-0 loss in 1987.
• Brazil has not conceded in 41 (37 wins, 4 draws) of the 59 games(44 wins, 11 draws, 4 losses) of the Tite era in all competitions.
• Chile had 5 shots on target against Brazil. This was most of any Brazil game in the CONMEBOL Copa América since Tite took charge. They had previously never faced more than 3 shots on target in the competition.
• Neymar is the player with the second most dribbles at the CONMEBOL Copa América 2021 (21 in 4 games, Messi has 22 in 4 games) and he has received the most fouls (21).