Chile boss Jorge Sampaoli has admitted that despite Alexis Sanchez not being 100% fit, he couldn’t afford to leave the Arsenal superstar out of the national side’s 2-0 victory over Brazil.
Alexis arrived in South America having picked up a slight injury against Manchester United in Arsenal’s 3-0 win over their Premier League rivals, where the Chilean scored twice in an electrifying opening 20 minutes at the Emirates Stadium.
With the 26-year-old in such fine club form, Sampaoli couldn’t resist the urge to start the Arsenal man in his side’s World Cup qualifier against Brazil.
Beating Brazil is great because I have never beat them before. It is very important for me and for all Chile. Beating Brazil is the best. Arturo and Alexis arrived not at their top fitness. They made a great effort as always. Arturo forcing himself, playing not at the percentage he can give but being there. As always. I highlight that we have to value Arturo much more than the rest because he sometimes is risking his condition as a player to be with the national team. A few players do that.
Alexis also arrived not at his top of form, with pain in the adductor. He couldn’t play at 100% but we thought that for us him not playing was to give too much advantage to our rivals because his presence in our team makes things difficult for our opponents.
Starting Alexis was clearly the right decision for the national side, with the former Barcelona man scoring late on to secure all three points against the five-time World Cup winners.
I hope to go to Peru with the intention to win and get the six points. We need to play well.
We know the stadium will be against us. So we need to be an intelligent team and play a very demanding game.
Chile next face Peru and Sampaoli admitted that he has no intentions of resting anyone, claiming that getting six points from a possible six is the most important factor for him to consider.
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