The semi-final stage of the Copa America turned up to be more or Kevin Gausman Jersey le s what it looked on paper, with the two more experienced sides managing to progre s to Sundays final. This however, does little justice to Venezuela, who matched Paraguay for long periods, and were only found wanting in the penalty shoot-out torture at the end of a second draw with group rivals Paraguay.Peru 0-2 UruguayA Luis Suarez double was enough to see off a depleted Peru side in Tuesdays Semi Final in La Plata.After 52 minutes of one-way traffic the Peruvian resistance was Brian McCann Jersey finally broken when Luis Suarez expertly put away the rebound from a parried Diego Forlan effort. The inevitable breakthrough came after guilt-edged mi ses from Lugano and Suarez in the first half and mounting pre sure from the Uruguayans.Five minutes later Suarez added the crucial second, neatly rounding the goalkeeper after a swift counter-attack as Peru began to chase the game.Perus captain and hero of the last round, Juan Vargas, was then dismi sed for a crude elbow on Coates as the bitter disappointment of coming so far only Jonny Venters Jersey to surrender tamely took hold of the Peruvian players.Paraguay 0-0 Venezuela (Paraguay win 5-3 on penalties)Paraguay advanced after a fifth consecutive draw in the Copa America, evoking further memories of Italys 1982 World Cup campaign when the Azzurri emerged as World Champions after 3 cagey draws. In fairne s to Italy, they did go on to comfortably defeat Poland and beat West Germany in two highly entertaining games. Paraguay on the other hand, could well go on to be crowned champions without scoring a goal in the knockout phase, which would surely represent some kind of precedent in World Football.Paraguay made the early running with Haedo Valdezs shaking off the Venezuelan defence and putting a dangerous ball acro s the box, and Dario Veron meeting a set piece that was well parried by goalkeeper Vega.Venezuela then had a Jose Ramirez Jersey goal ruled out for offside and Salomon Rondon effort fielded well by the outstanding keeper of the tournament, Justo Villar.A quiet second half came and went with Haedo Valdez again the closest to breaking the deadlock. Paraguay controlled the game for large periods without any serious penetration or unduly worrying moments for the Venezuelan defence.Oddly, Venezuela had much the better of extra-time, with Juan Arango finally getting the better of Justo Villar, but bouncing back of the woodwork to leave the Vinotinto desperately frustrated. Paraguay looked leg-weary and lost a man in the second period of extra time when Jonathan Santana picked up a second yellow. Venezuela looked Kurt Suzuki Jersey the more likely winners in the closing stages but Paraguays ten-men held on for penalties, and won their second consecutive shoot-out when Lucenas effort was stopped by Villar to trigger wild Paraguayan celebrations.