Action in Copa America 2024 continued on Sunday, July 7, 2024, with Uruguay trading tackles with Brazil while Colombia clashed with Panama in the quarter-finals. Futballnews brings you all the actions as it happened.
Colombia 5-0 Panama
Colombia frolicked to a big Copa America 2024 quarter-final victory over Panama. The South American giants bundled Panama with ease, clearing the opponents emphatically for a place in the last four of the competition.
A rickety Panama defence was an easy target for Colombia’s ruthless attacking arsenal. Things got off to a fiery start and the Colombians didn’t tarry to pluck the loopholes and make it a rout right from the first half.
At the quarter-hour, they were already two goals up. Cordoba opened the scoring for the team just 8 minutes into proceedings before Rodriguez doubled the lead seven minutes later.
Panama continued to struggle against Colombia’s dominant sail in the match and made little attempt to mount a comeback.
Four minutes before the end of the first half, Liverpool forward Luis Diaz nailed home the third goal to cap a dominant and scintillating first-half display. At the break, Panama deservedly trailed by three unreplied goals.
The goal rumble was quelled in the second half. Panama slightly stepped up their gameplay but it was a matter of time before Colombia sealed victory. In the 70th minute, Rios made it 4-0 and that was not enough. At the last touch of the game in the added time, Miguel added to the tally to condemn Panama to a 5-0 defeat while Colombia emerged with their biggest win in the tournament.
The victory has seen Colombia set up a rollercoaster semi-final pairing with Uruguay.
Uruguay 0-0 Brazil [4-2 Penalties]
In the other semi-final, Uruguay, who won all their matches in the group stages of the competition, were held by Brazil to a goalless draw. In a clash dominated by Brazil, it was a game of few chances. Brazil fired 12 attempts with only 3 on target while Uruguay could only manage one on target out of their 8 attempts.
Meanwhile, at the half hour, Barcelona and Uruguay defender Ronald Araujo went down a hamstring injury. He was forced off the game prematurely with Gimenez coming on.
While the extent of the injury his yet to be confirmed, there are suggestions he has been ruled out of the tournament and will miss the start of the 2024-25 season for Barcelona.
After a barren first half, Brazil had a chance to win the tie when Uruguay had their player, Nandez, sent off.
Despite the numerical advantage, it was a deadlocked tie as the Selecao failed to find the back of the net. Uruguay held on to salvage a draw and dragged the game to penalties. Gimenez missed one of Uruguay’s five spot-kicks while Douglas Luiz and Eder Militao missed Brazil’s.
It ended in a 4-2 victory for Uruguay, who knock out the Dorivial Junior-led side from the competition to set up a blockbuster semi-final clash with Colombia.
Copa America 2024 semi-final fixtures
With the quarter-finals concluded, Copa America 2024 semi-final fixtures are as follows;
Defending champions, Argentina, will take on Canada in the first match on Wednesday, July 10 by 01:00GMT while Uruguay will clash with Colombia on Thursday, July 11 by 01:00GMT.
The losers in the semi-finals will clash for a third-place playoff on Sunday, July 14 while the final will be held on Monday, July 15.
