Argentina vs. Colombia: Winners and Losers from Copa America Quarter-Final
Argentina and Colombia played out a thoroughly entertaining quarter-final tie in the 2015 Copa America on Friday night, with a 90-minute 0-0 draw not reflecting the excitement and incident-filled fixture. The draw meant a penalty shootout to decide the semi-finalist, with Argentina triumphing 5-4 in the end.
Though there were chances aplenty in the first half, the first 45 minutes ended scoreless after a string of near-misses, especially with Argentina on the attack. After the break, Colombia had a few of their own counter-attacks, but it was still their opponents who threatened more, with Ever Banega hitting the bar from range and two shots being cleared off the line.
Here are all our biggest winners and losers from the match.
Winner: David Ospina
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Colombia would have been out of the game at half-time if not for goalkeeper David Ospina.
The Arsenal stopper made three important saves that were fairly routine, if fired at him from close range—including from his own defender, Cristian Zapata—but he also made one truly top-class double stop to keep his side on level terms.
Firstly, he denied Sergio Aguero with his feet, before bounding back up to make a flying save to his right to prevent Lionel Messi from opening the scoring with a five-yard header. In the second half, he made a brave dash out of his box to clear from—and collide with—Angel Di Maria, before he denied Nicolas Otamendi's header with another late fingertip save.
Loser: Referee
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Six yellow cards were dished out by referee Roberto Garcia Orozco in the first half alone—and it could have been closer to double figures had he actually spotted a series of obvious and intentional fouls by both sets of players, but particularly the Colombians.
His first two cards were shown for dissent rather than any of the countless fouls, but thereafter, the rugged nature of the match ensured the referee was kept busy rather than having clear control of proceedings.
A crowd of players were around him after every challenge, and he also ended up sending off Argentina assistant manager Jorge Pautasso and a coach from Colombia. His main accomplishment may have been managing to keep everybody on the pitch—though the same couldn't be said for either bench, of course.
Winner: Jeison Murillo
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It takes a brave, balanced or blase defender to consistently step out of the back line and challenge Lionel Messi one on one during his dribbling runs—but Jeison Murillo got it right almost every time on the night for Colombia.
The young centre-back was quick to look up and commit Messi in the challenge whenever possible, impressively stopping the world's best talent with some well-timed and well-judged toe-end tackles.
Murillo remains Colombia's only goalscorer in the Copa America—and also saved his side from knockout with a late sliding clearance off the goal line. The one downside was his dreadful spot-kick in the shootout, blazed miles over.
Losers: Teo and Jackson
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Jose Pekerman sprung a change in his attack by leaving out captain Radamel Falcao and pairing Jackson Martinez with Teofilo Gutierrez, but neither player had any kind of impact.
Teo's game was over well before half-time as he was subbed out by Pekerman, opting to bring another midfielder into the match as Argentina dominated, while Martinez remained on the pitch but had no effect at all.
The soon-to-be Atletico Madrid man, as Martinez's agent confirmed to AS (via ESPN FC), couldn't hold the ball up, made precious few runs and never looked like fashioning a chance for himself in the absence of support from deep. It was no surprise that Colombia changed him too, ending with Falcao on the pitch as well as Luis Muriel.
Winner: Both Managers' Attacking Substitutions
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With no extra time in the knockout stages, the temptation might have been there for either manager to tighten up and accept penalties as 90 minutes drew close—but their in-game changes didn't reflect that.
Argentina threw on the likes of Carlos Tevez and Ezequiel Lavezzi, while Colombia went for it with Muriel and Falcao off the bench. It made sure the match continued in its breathless pace from the first whistle until the last, with both sides having late chances to snatch a victory.
A penalty shootout isn't the favourite way to settle games for everybody, but it was in keeping with the tension and action-packed game overall this time around—and it was perhaps fitting that one of those attacking subs, Tevez, eventually netted the telling penalty.
