Colombia defeated Uruguay by a solitary goal in a hard-fought Copa America semifinal between Latin America’s strongest teams on Sunday. Jefferson Lerma scored the decisive goal. Colombia will face defending champion Argentina in the final. Colombia marched into the final by holding on to Uruguay without allowing them to score, despite Daniel Munoz being sent off with a red card for hitting the opponent in injury time in the first half.
First-half goal and red card
Colombia’s lead in the early minutes of the game was ahead, but the Uruguayan slowly held their ground, and the ball went up quickly in both halves. In the 15th minute, Colombia’s best forward was seen, but Munoz wasted the opportunity. Soon after, Uruguay came close to the goal. Liverpool striker Darwin Nunes got the opportunity to go out by inches. Nunez then missed two more chances to take the lead.
In the 31st minute, Colombia’s Munoz received his first yellow card of the match for a foul on Araujo. Colombia had a great opportunity soon after, but Cordoba’s header from Rodriguez’s cross was out. The match also witnessed Uruguay’s Rodrigo Bentanker being ruled out with an injury while Colombia were making good strides.
Colombia took the lead in the 40th minute. Jefferson Lerma scored the equalizer for Uruguay with a beautiful header from a corner kick from James Rodriguez. With this, Rodriguez holds the record for most assists scored by Lionel Messi. Rodreguez broke the record of five assists in the 2021 Copa Tournament to six.
Colombia should have doubled the lead in the final minutes of the first half. However, Muñoz’s shot from inside the box was blocked by goalkeeper Rochet. Daniel Muñoz was sent off after receiving a red card for hitting opponent Ugarte in injury time in the first half. Colombia came close to the goal in the last minute despite the dwindling number, but could not get past the Uruguayan goalkeeper.
Uruguay made great strides throughout the second half against a lesser-than-man Colombia. Successive attacks seemed to put the ball in the Colombian net at any moment. Luis Suarez, who came on as a substitute in the 66th minute, immediately came close to scoring but was stopped by the defenders. Minutes later, Colombia were relieved when Suarez’s shot hit the post and got out of the way. Valverde’s effort also went out by inches. The combination of Darwin Nunes, Suarez, Valverde, and Ugarte constantly raided the Colombian goalmouth, but the yellow brigade held on tightly to the counterweight.
Colombia seemed to have doubled the lead on a counterattack with three minutes remaining before the end of the stipulated time, but Matthieus Uribe was incredibly squandered the opportunity with only the goalkeeper in front. After Uruguay missed a golden opportunity in injury time, Colombia’s Uribe’s shot hit goalkeeper Rochet’s body and hit the crossbar. Colombia had a dream final as Uruguay’s attempts to bounce back were unsuccessful.