Colombia beats Argentina 2-1 in World Cup qualifier, avenges Copa final loss
Colombia beats Argentina 2-1 in World Cup qualifier, avenges Copa final loss
Blog Article
Colombia, which tasted the bitter taste of second place after losing to Argentina in the final of the 2024 South American Football Championship (Copa 2024), enjoyed a thrilling victory in the return match after two months.
Colombia won 2-1 against Argentina in the 8th match of the 2026 North and Central American World Cup South American qualifiers held at the Metropolitano Roberto Melendez in Barranquilla, Colombia on the 11th (Korean time), led by the performance of 'goal scorer' James Rodriguez (Vallecano), who put on a one-man show with 1 goal and 1 assist.
With this, Colombia maintained its undefeated streak in the South American qualifiers with 4 wins and 4 draws (16 points), maintaining its second place, and putting pressure on the leader Argentina (6 wins, 2 losses, 18 points) by 2 points.
In addition, Argentina's loss on this day ended their 12-match unbeaten streak in A matches (11 wins, 1 draw, 1-1 penalty shootout win in the quarterfinals of Copa 2024, which ended in a draw).
The match between Colombia and Argentina on this day was the 'Again Copa 2024 Final'.
The two countries faced each other in the Copa 2024 final on July 15, with Argentina winning 1-0 in extra time to claim their 16th trophy.
Colombia, on the other hand, was disappointed as they failed to reclaim their championship title after 23 years. They had to be content with James Rodriguez being named the tournament's MVP.
Two months later, Colombia and Argentina met again in the South American qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
One difference from the final at the time was that Argentina's 'star 한국을 player' Lionel Messi was out due to injury.
In the 'return match', Colombia took the lead in the 25th minute of the first half when Yerson Mosquera (Wolverhampton) headed a cross from Rodriguez in front of the goal after receiving the ball from a left corner kick.
Argentina, who were trailing 0-1 in the first half, leveled the game in the 3rd minute of the second half when Nicolas Gonzalez (Juventus) cut into the left side of the penalty area and shot with his left foot past the goalkeeper's leg.
The tight match was decided in the 8th minute of the second half.
Colombia's Daniel Muñoz (Crystal Palace) was tackled by Argentina defender Nicolas Otamendi on the right side of the penalty area and the referee awarded a penalty after a video assistant referee (VAR).
Colombia secured a 2-1 victory when 'Captain' Rodriguez stepped up as the penalty taker in the 11th minute of the second half and scored with a powerful left-footed shot. Rodriguez's penalty kick turned out to be the winning goal.
Meanwhile, Brazil, known as 'Samba Soccer', lost 0-1 to Paraguay in the 8th away match of the South American qualifiers held at the Estadio Ueno Defensores del Chaco in Asuncion, Paraguay, and lost face.
Brazil (10 points, goal difference +1) is tied with Venezuela (10 points, goal difference -1) in points, but is ranked 5th due to a higher goal difference.
Uruguay (15 points), which drew 0-0 with Venezuela on this day, rose to 3rd place, while Ecuador (11 points), which defeated last place Peru (3 points) 1-0, rose to 4th place.