As if it had been a different team, the Colombian team finally had a very brilliant match and thrashed Paraguay 3-0 at the El Campín stadium, for the second date of the final phase.
With the great novelty of the departure of Ricardo Caraballo for Jorge Cabezas, the change gave him the effect that the ‘tricolor’ longed for, who was a lethal striker in the area.
In the first five minutes of the game, the ‘tricolor’ took the ball and laid the rival down on their own field, with long passes both from side to side and from goalkeeper Luis Marquines.
However, the first clear opportunity came after 11 minutes on behalf of Paraguay, on a rebound left in the area, after a free kick, where Alan Wlk finished off and the Colombian goalkeeper kept it on the floor.
Although Paraguay was recovering the ball, at minute 23 Colombia opened the scoring with Jorge Cabezas, after a long pass, but it was offside and the goal was disallowed.
Fortunately for the Medellín forward, who was given the confidence to break the misfortune in the opposite goal, he achieved the goal after 30 minutes, with a good pass from Miguel Monsalve to the attacker, he was left alone in front of goalkeeper Ángel González and marked the annotation.
After the score, the team led by Aldo Bobadilla did not find a way to hurt Colombia, highlighting the work of Kevin Mantilla and Jhojan Torres.
Cabezas, one of the figures of the match, was key to extending the score at 40 minutes, with a good pass for Óscar Cortés towards the area, the Millonarios attacker shot across the right post of the goal and made it 2-0.
Before the end of the first half, Colombia was saved thanks to the upper post of Marquines’ goal, where Matías Segovia crashed his shot.
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Beginning the second half, Bobadilla made four changes with the first goal of recovering the ball, which he did in the first five minutes.
Víctor Quintana, one of the players who entered for Paraguay, narrowly missed the score at 51′ with a shot outside the area that passed near the top post.
Alexis Castillo, another of the figures in the first half for Colombia, tried to score the third goal at minute 55 with a mid-height kick that ended up in the hands of goalkeeper González.
With 75 minutes on the clock, it was clear Colombia’s dominance on the field, both in defense and attack, even the changes made by the national coach had an effect.
Fuentes, who hadn’t done much in the opposite area, decided to take a good shot with a curve at 81′, which passed close to the right post.
Just before he left the field, Gustavo Puerta sealed the rout with a great goal after 89 minutes, thanks to a strong shot in the area that goalkeeper González did not stop.
In this way, the ‘tricolor’ returned to the fight for a place in the World Cup in Indonesia, with three points in the final phase and goal difference +2, hoping for a new victory on Monday against Ecuador.