Quarter-finals against record winners | OneFootball

Friday will see Pacho at the Copa América and Koch at the EURO face the record title-winners at their respective tournaments, namely Argentina and Spain.

Willian Pacho has followed in the footsteps of Robin Koch and made it through to the quarter-finals! The two defenders’ campaigns are set to continue, at the UEFA EURO 2024 for Germany and the Copa América for Ecuador. In their third and final group game in the USA, La Tri needed a point against their direct rivals Mexico to qualify for the knock-out stage, and they got just that with a 0-0 draw.

Pacho played the full 90 minutes for the third match in row and helped his side to a clean sheet for the first time.

Argentina… again

Having finished second in their group, Ecuador will face Argentina on Friday at 3:00 CEST, in Houston, Texas. This will be the third time in ten months that Pacho will have crossed swords with Lionel Messi and his team-mates, after World Cup qualifying in September 2023 and a friendly on 10 June, both of which saw Ecuador slip to a 1-0 defeat.

At the previous edition of the Copa América, Argentina saw off Ecuador in the quarter-finals 3-0 en route to the title. The Albiceleste picked up a maximum nine points from their group games this time around, scoring five goals and conceding none. As defending champions and record 15-time winners of the tournament, they are the toughest possible opponents for the Ecuadorians.

Koch to face Spain

A similar task awaits Koch and Germany, with confirmation coming late on Sunday night that their quarter-final opponents on Friday at 18:00 CEST in Stuttgart would be Spain. La Furia Roja are equal record-holders at the tournament with Germany on three titles and on Sunday, they cruised past Georgia 4-1 to record their fourth win in as many matches at this year’s EURO in Germany.