SANTA CLARA – Colombia coach Néstor Lorenzo urged his team to remain focused and energized in every physical and emotional moment against mighty Brazil – through two scorching halves and nearly one other 10 minutes of stoppage time.
“We all wanted to have our best moments in this game and I think we took another step forward,” said Lorenzo. “With Brazil, you can't be careless for a second.”
Daniel Muñoz scored the equalizer in first-half stoppage time and Colombia topped their Copa America first round group with a 1-1 draw against Brazil on Tuesday night, extending their unbeaten streak to 26 games.
Colombia goalkeeper Camilo Vargas saved Brazil's last probability within the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time when Andreas Pereira shot wide.
Colombia will play Panama within the quarterfinals on Saturday in Glendale, Arizona, while Brazil faces a seemingly tougher match against Uruguay later that evening in Las Vegas.
“It's a feeling of satisfaction to have played against such a strong opponent,” said Lorenzo. “Now we have to think about Panama.”
Los Cafeteros, who finished with seven points to Brazil's five, had two consecutive probabilities to attain within the 84th minute but were unable to capitalise.
Brazil took the lead within the twelfth minute when Raphinha fired a left-footed free kick into the highest right corner of the online, just over the outstretched hand of Vargas.
The Brazilian winger jumped and pumped his fist because the experienced Seleção struck first at Levi's Stadium, home of the NFL's San Francisco 49ers.
The players placed on an entertaining show within the Group D final, with Brazilian Bruno Guimarães describing Colombia as “a thorn in our side” ahead of Tuesday’s match.
The game, which was expected to be exciting and stuffed with fouls, greater than lived as much as expectations. There were five yellow cards and a sea of the identical color jerseys representing each countries filled the seats – no less than when the fans finally got in. Some scanning machines got extremely popular and slowed down entry.
The match was attended by 70,971 spectators, and the 24 group stage matches were attended by 1,115,400 spectators, a mean of 46,475.
A heat warning was issued for the Bay Area, and the temperature at kickoff was 98 degrees—although about half of the sphere was in shade on one sideline.
The midfielder, who turns 33 on July 12, has provided three assists for Los Cafeteros on this tournament.
“It was like a final. It was a super exciting game,” he said. “It's so exciting to play against star players. That's the beauty of the whole thing. … We still have a lot of work to do and on Saturday we have to go out there and play very focused.”
Brazil, a team used to winning the championship at this tournament, faces a tougher road with out a win against Colombia.
The Seleção have won nine Copa titles and finished second within the 2021 tournament.
Colombia had already booked their place within the quarter-finals and are on a 26-match unbeaten streak – including a 5-1 win over the USA in a pre-tournament friendly – while Brazil were held to a 1-1 draw by the Americans in one other warm-up match 4 days later.
Colombia beat Brazil 2-1 in South American qualifying last 12 months. It was the primary meeting since three encounters in 2021, when Brazil beat Colombia 2-1 within the Copa America.
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