Brazil’s Luis Fabiano (centre) in a tussle with Paraguay’s Fredy Bareiro (left) and Pedro Juan Benitez in Arequipa on Wednesday. (AP)

Piura: Ten-man Paraguay, fielding their under-23 team, stunned Brazil 2-1 in the Copa America on Wednesday while Costa Rica snatched a quarter final place by beating Chile by the same score with the last kick of the game.

The world champions had already qualified for the last eight but their shock defeat in Arequipa deprived them of first place in group C and condemned them to a 2,000-km trip north to face Mexico here on Sunday.

A draw would have given them top spot and a 360-km journey to play Uruguay in Tacna.

Instead, Fredy Bareiro’s second-half winner means Paraguay will take on Uruguay, who are enjoying a revival after some disastrous performances in the World Cup qualifiers.

Striker Andy Herron’s goal in the fourth minute of injury time earned Costa Rica a place as one of the two best third-placed teams and a tie against Colombia in Trujillo on Saturday.

Hosts Peru, still sulking after media reports last week accused two players of a drinking binge, complete the line-up against Argentina in Chiclayo on Saturday.

Peru’s players continued their media silence in Trujillo and again trained behind closed doors.

Paraguay are using the Copa as a warm-up for the Olympic soccer tournament, which is restricted to under-23 teams, and although Brazil rested the likes of Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Kaka and Ronaldinho, their team still boasts plenty of world class players.

An easy Brazil win was expected but Paraguay, who have made a habit of upsetting their biggest neighbours recently, had other ideas as Julio Gonzalez headed them in front in the 28th minute.

Luis Fabiano restored order with a brilliant equaliser seven minutes later, controlling the ball on his chest and rifling a right foot shot into the top corner on the turn.

But Brazil failed to capitalise and Bareiro slipped the ball through goalkeeper Julio Cesar’s legs in the 71st minute after controlling Fabio Escobar’s header on his chest.

Paraguay, who only created three chances in the game, survived the last 16 minutes with ten men after defender Emilio Martinez was sent off for retaliation on Gustavo Nery.

“It’s difficult to explain,” said Luis Fabiano after a result reminiscent of their 0-2 quarter final defeat by Honduras at the last Copa America in Colombia. “It wasn’t our day.”

Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira said: “We know that Paraguay are very effective with the high ball and once again this has worked for them. We paid dearly for failing to defend ourselves against something that we knew was coming.”

Paraguay have won two of their last five meetings with Brazil with another game drawn, an impressive performance given the huge gulf in size and footballing tradition between the two nations.

They also qualified for Athens at Brazil’s expense, beating them 0-1 in the final Olympic qualifier.

Paraguay coach Carlos Jara Saguier said: “My players did an excellent job of organising themselves and snapping up the chances that came their way. What more can you ask (for)?”

Chile had been favourites to complete the quarter final line-up in Tacna and were on course when defender Rafael Olarra headed them ahead after 29 minutes.

But they left the field shell-shocked after Mauricio Wright equalised in the 59th minute and Herron snatched a dramatic winner.

Losing the group C leadership to Paraguay was not a footballing disaster for Brazil, but the defeat has upset their logistical planning, Parreira said.

“It wasn’t a critical game because we had already qualified for the quarter finals. But we wanted to avoid a tiring journey, and that was why we wanted a win or a draw,” he said.

Parreira also acknowledged that slipping up against Paraguay had probably earned his team a tougher quarter final encounter.

Mexico beat favourites Argentina 1-0 on the way to topping group B and have performed impressively in the tournament.

But the experienced Brazil coach said he hoped the defeat to Paraguay would serve the purpose of ironing out mistakes before the knockout stages.

“We made defensive mistakes from dead-ball situations. Hopefully this will serve as a wake-up call so that we can avoid repeating these mistakes in the next phase,” he said.

Parreira’s sentiments were echoed in the comments of his players.

“Every game presents its problems. (Paraguay) were the hungrier team and they got their reward for that. We are learning from every game we play and this won’t lower our morale,” said striker Adriano, who scored a hattrick in Brazil’s 4-1 win over Costa Rica on Sunday.

Wednesday’s games went ahead against the backdrop of Peru’s first general strike since 1999.

Thousands of people, some burning effigies of President Alejandro Toledo, took to the streets nation-wide to protest against his unpopular government. Neither the tournament nor the teams were directly affected.

QUARTER FINAL LINE-UP

• Brazil vs Mexico

• Paraguay vs Uruguay

• Costa Rica vs Colombia

• Peru vs Argentina