Without making a great game, the Colombian team secured its place in the final phase of the South American U-20, by beating Argentina 1-0 at the Esatdio Pascual Guerrero.
Without Gustavo Puerta due to suspension, the ‘tricolor’ found themselves lost in midfield and with many problems keeping the ball on their feet.
Two minutes into the game, the alarms were set off in Colombia by Daniel Luna, who received a strong blow that had him on the ground for a moment, but fortunately he recovered.
Arriving at 15′, Colombia was doing very little for the match, with a lack of ideas in attack and little by little they were leaving spaces for the rival.
That was how Brian Aguirre had two opportunities outside the area, one at 14′ that went wide and without force in the shot, and another that Luis Marquínes saved over the right post.
Luna got the first clear option for Colombia after 32 minutes, with a personal action where he finished off from the edge of the area, but the shot was so soft that it ended up in the hands of goalkeeper Herrera.
Unfortunately, Colombia’s good moment was affected by the departure of Luna at 35′, who could not bear the pain from the blow in the first minutes and was replaced by Alexis Castillo.
After that, at minute 40, Argentina almost opened the scoring through Axel Encinas, who received a good cross from Aguirre, kicked him and went just over the goal.
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Starting the complementary part, Héctor Cárdenas and Javier Mascherano made a change: Juan David Fuentes entered for Miguel Monsalve, and Ulises Ciccioli for Brian Aguilar.
Fuentes, the Colombian-Spanish player, almost opened the scoring after 49 minutes with a good cross shot that Herrera controlled on the ground.
With an hour on the clock, coach Cárdenas brought out Caraballo, who did little or nothing in attack, and brought in Johan Torres, a midfielder whose task was to recover the ball and support Castilla y Vélez in contention.
After minute 70, despair was notorious in Argentina because they had the ball, they attacked but they did not have the same danger as before.
To put the ‘cherry’ on the cake, Franco Herrera demolished all the illusions of the albiceleste at 77, when Fuentes shot outside the area, the goalkeeper did not control it well and went to the back of the net.
After the score, things in Colombia were calmer and they finally dominated the match, despite the individual errors that were recurring throughout the game.
In the last minutes, Argentina pressed in the area with high balls that almost gave for the tie, but the ‘tricolor’ defense was concentrated to get each ball.
Without giving a good presentation and with many problems in the offensive part, the ‘tricolor’ secured the qualification to the final phase in second place with eight points, eliminating Argentina that finished with four units.
On Tuesday, January 31, the final hexagonal will begin in Bogotá, with matches at El Campín and Techo, where Colombia will seek one of the four places in the World Cup in Indonesia, in addition to the South American title.