Celtic defender Alistair Johnston will have an extended stay at the Copa America tournament after Canada progressed through a tough group that included Argentina, Chile and Peru.
Canada needed a draw against Alexis Sanchez’s Chile in Orlando, Florida overnight and held on for a 0-0 result that put them through to the competition’s quarter-finals.
Johnston and his team are now set to face the winners of Group B in Arlington, Texas this coming Friday for a place in the semi-finals. At this stage, their most likely opponents look to be Venezuela.
It’s a historic moment for Canada in their first-ever Copa America tournament. They’ll fancy reaching the final four and making a big statement about their direction of travel under new boss Jesse Marsch.
While the dour draw against Chile didn’t exactly excite the neutral, Johnston was one of the best Canadian performers on the pitch and will be delighted with his contribution.
Celtic’s Johnston helps Canada hold firm
With a 7.7 FotMob rating, Johnston was regarded as Canada’s most effective out-field player with only goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau ranking higher on the entire pitch.
It was a busy night for the right-back with 13 defensive actions in total. He won four of his six tackles and made five clearances and two interceptions. Johnston was his usual combative self, involved in a massive 17 duels, winning ten of them.
He probed in attack too with nine of his 38 total passes into the final third, while also creating a chance for teammate Tajon Buchanan.
Alistair Johnston reacts to Canada result
After the match he was delighted, telling OneSoccer: “I think you could see it from the emotion we just showed on the pitch. It was one of the goals going into the summer – we knew we had a really difficult group and other people would write us off.
“We needed results, we knew it was going to be a war. We came out on the right side of it both in terms of keeping our cool and getting the results needed – it’s special. It’s not easy playing in front of some pretty hostile crowds here but the guys stood strong and were resilient. I think it was an impressive performance.”
The best of luck to Alistair and his compatriots in their big match on Friday, which will be broadcast live on Premier Sports in the UK.