The Colombia unbeaten streak lives on at a team-record 28 games after surviving Uruguay and now faces the ultimate test against Copa America title holders Argentina in Sunday’s final. Read how it went down and check out the post-match facts with our Uruguay vs Colombia stats page.
There are matches in which a team scores early and holds on to win.
There are matches in which a team scores early, goes down to 10 men and holds on to win.
But there’s only one match in which a team scores early, goes down to 10 men and holds on to win to extend an unbeaten streak to a team-record 28 matches and advance to a major tournament final for a chance to wrestle a continental trophy from Lionel Messi and World champions Argentina.
On Wednesday night in Charlotte, 10-man Colombia held firm as they edged past Uruguay 1-0 in a frenetic semi-final to book their place in the Copa America final.
The in-form team looked up to their usual tricks as Jefferson Lerma scored what ultimately ended up being the winner in the first half, but they had to work hard to keep their impressive unbeaten streak alive.
Daniel Muñoz’s sending off on the stroke of half-time put Colombia under pressure, but they thrived under it, nullifying Uruguay’s late attempts to salvage a result.
Chasing just their second-ever Copa America title, Los Cafeteros will play defending champions Argentina in the final on Sunday.
The tournament’s highest scorers started brightly, with Muñoz thumping a powerful header just wide of Sergio Rochet’s post for Colombia.
However, the tide soon turned, and Darwin Núñez arguably should have had a first-half hat-trick as he missed a flurry of golden chances.
Twice he fired wide of Camilo Vargas’ right post, sending the goalkeeper scrambling with the first as it flew inches wide, before lifting a third just over the crossbar from the edge of the box.
Colombia soon showed their threat from set-pieces though, with Lerma rising high to nod in a corner from James Rodríguez, who got his record-breaking sixth assist of the tournament.
Muñoz received his marching orders shortly after though, having received a first booking for a sliding tackle on Maximiliano Araújo, he then foolishly elbowed Manuel Ugarte in the chest, leaving the referee no choice but to send him off.
Luis Suárez was given 25 minutes to make an impact in the second half and was inches away from doing so – unmarked on the edge of the box, he rattled the post after putting his laces through a powerful shot.
Moments later, Federico Valverde sneakily tried to beat Vargas with a low strike into the bottom-left corner, but could only drill it wide of the target. In defeat, Valverde didn’t disappoint while connecting on 35 of 38 final-third passes with only one of those attempts going backward in a tournament at which the final-third passing accuracy stands at 65.2%:
Kevin Castaño had two glorious chances to secure the victory for Colombia in the dying minutes. He fired wide with the first, but was unlucky with the second as a big save by Rochet sent his effort onto the crossbar and kept Uruguay momentarily alive.
Uruguay Come up Short in Front of Goal
Coming into this match, Uruguay had conceded just once at the Copa America, in their opening match against Panama.
Despite ending a run of three clean sheets, that was not their focus. Instead, they were let down by their lack of a clinical edge in the final third.
At the end of the group stages, Uruguay were the high scorers, having netted nine goals on their way to topping Group C, but in the knockout rounds, they failed to hit the back of the net.
Núñez had all four of their first-half shots without hitting the target once, and La Celeste struggled to use their man advantage in the second as they managed just two tame shots on target by the full-time whistle in addition to Suárez’s post.
For Núñez, a Copa America that started with promise ends with a tournament-high 20 shots with his last goal coming in the 21st minute of Matchday 2 of the group stage against Bolivia.
James Makes History
James has gone through something of a renaissance at this year’s Copa America, proving to be the star man for Néstor Lorenzo.
His assist for Lerma’s opener was his sixth of the tournament, the highest tally by a player at a single edition on record (since 2011), surpassing Lionel Messi’s tally of five from 2021. He’s also created a tournament-high 17 chances, 12 of which have come on set-pieces.
He did not see out the whole game on this occasion – after picking up a yellow card for dissent, Lorenzo smartly took him off to make sure Colombia didn’t go down to nine men and Rodríguez would be available for the final.
Lerma’s header was the fifth such goal scored by Los Cafeteros, while also bringing their tally up to eight goals from set-pieces (including penalties).
They showed a different side to their game as they dug deep to get the all-important win, extending their unbeaten streak to 28 games, with Argentina awaiting them in the final.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Uruguay vs Colombia stats from their Copa America 2024 semi-final clash at Bank of America Stadium.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own post-match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.
Uruguay vs Colombia: Post-Match Facts
- James Rodríguez is the first player to provide six assists in a single edition of the CONMEBOL Copa America since Opta started recording this data in 2011. The Colombian surpassed the five assists delivered by Lionel Messi in 2021.
- Colombia has reached the final of the Copa America for the third time (1975, 2001 and 2024), ending a streak of three semi-final eliminations (2004, 2016 and 2021). Los Cafeteros are the fourth team to reach multiple Copa finals in the 21st century (Argentina 6, Brazil 4, Chile 2).
- Colombia have scored 12 goals in the Copa America 2024, surpassing their previous highest total in a single edition of the tournament (11 in 1975 and 2001).
- Colombia scored their fifth headed goal in the Copa America 2024, the most by a team in a single edition of the tournament since Argentina’s six headed goals in 1991.
- Jefferson Lerma scored his third goal with Colombia’s senior team, his second in the Copa America 2024 (today against Uruguay, in the group stage against Paraguay, and in the South American Qualifiers in 2020 against Chile). All three goals were headers.
- Uruguay held 73% possession after Colombia scored their goal in the 39th minute. However, Uruguay outshot Colombia by only one during that time (7-6).
- Colombia have defeated Uruguay in consecutive knockout stage matches in the Copa America (quarter-finals in 2021 and semi-finals in 2024) for the first time since the semi-finals in 1975 and the quarter-finals in 1993.
- Federico Valverde (Uruguay) completed 35 passes in the final third, the most by a player in a match at the Copa America 2024.
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