For the third date of the Qualifiers towards the 2026 World Cup, the Colombian team received Uruguay in Barranquilla. Those led by Néstor Lorenzo aimed to overcome the doubts left on the previous date when they achieved a gray draw during their visit to Chile. But in a game marked by moments of inaccuracy in the defenses of both teams, the Tricolor gave up a 2-2 draw that did not satisfy those attending the Metropolitan stadium, and to further complicate things, it left a significant loss for the next match against Ecuador.
The first stages of the game were marked by poor passing success and difficulties in getting the ball under control on the part of both teams. Although the figure of James Rodríguez began to stand out little by little and gave coherence to Colombia’s offensive game, the disorder in the defensive line and Luis Díaz’s imprecision in movements made the process difficult for the locals. Especially when Uruguay went on the counterattack to look for their area man, Darwin Núñez.
At 35 minutes, and when Colombia was most out of position, an overflow by Santiago Arias on the right allowed the full-back to unload on the edge of the area for James Rodríguez. The Sao Paulo midfielder controlled with his left and finished from the right without any rival hindering him to beat Santiago Mele and light up the Metropolitano stands. Uruguay tried to respond, but Vargas was solid in goal, and the first half ended with a 1-0 advantage for the coffee growers.
Colombia’s first goal, work of James Rodríguez
Starting the complementary part, Colombia gave up a corner kick after Nico González finished from mid-range with a lot of space available and the ball bounced off the Colombian defense. To the center of Nicolás De La Cruz, Mathias Oliveira rose in the air, who hit the ball first with his head and then with his leg, against a defense that did not react to the action of the Napoli player. Camilo Vargas could not respond and the tie silenced the Metropolitan once again.
The tie gave encouragement to the Uruguayan team to try to take the lead while Colombia tried to establish itself again in defense. But the visiting defense was also having problems, and the coffee team took advantage of that in the 52nd minute. In a counterattack, James Rodríguez leaned on the right side and after controlling the ball, gave it to Mateus Uribe who was waiting alone at the edge of the area. The Al-Sadd midfielder from Qatar finished and beat Mele to return the lead to Colombia.
Mateus Uribe scored Colombia’s second goal, from a pass from James Rodríguez – credit Tigo Sports
From that moment on, those led by Lorenzo began to control the ball more and more, due to the fatigue of the Uruguayans. The entry of Richard Ríos in the second half gave Colombia fresh legs to continue controlling the middle of the field, and they had options to increase the advantage, but the imprecision of Díaz and the vertical deprived them of increasing the advantage. Uruguay managed to create counter-attacking options, such as in the 78th minute, when the substitute Maximiliano Araujo was close to taking advantage of a mistake by Carlos Cuesta to score the tie, but the ball went over Camilo Vargas’ goal.
The final minutes of the match saw both teams affected by physical exertion in the heat of Barranquilla, with several players forcing the game to stop due to cramps. One of them was Camilo Vargas, who suffered from his leg during the final minutes, and was then sent off with a double yellow for a dangerous action when he was fighting for the ball with Oliveira, after a lack of attention from Frank Fabra when Uruguay took a risky ball. .
The expulsion of Vargas left him the opportunity to tie the Uruguayans through a penalty, and will also prevent the goalkeeper from playing the next match against Ecuador, on Tuesday, October 17 in Quito. Darwin Nuñez did not forgive and with a strong shot high to the left post he beat the incoming Álvaro Montero to certify the tie. Both teams tried to do the “heroic” thing in stoppage time, but time ran out and the referee blew the final whistle.
With this result, Colombia reaches five points in the tie and remains in third place until the remaining matches of the date are played, but it gives up its first points at home. For its part, Uruguay reaches four points and reaches fourth place. With Infobae