Coming down to a tense penalty shootout, Brazil go on to the next stage while Colombia make history for themselves and move on to their first ever quarterfinals.
Brazil v Chile, 1-1, 3-2 penalties
Brazil and Chile had faced each other 3 other times in this stage of competition, most recently last year with Brazil winning 3-0. As we had seen though, this Chilean team was not going down without a fight, and nearly delivered a fatal blow to the home country in the last minutes of regular play. After two hours of regular and overtime, it would come down to the deadly penalty shootout.
Unfortunately, as Yahoo Sports pointed out, the 14 year jinx against Chile beating Brazil remained. Brazil goalkeeper Julio Cesar shined stopping the Chile’s first two penalty kicks, while Brazilians Hulk and Willian missed theirs. Neymar would go up and score his, and the goal itself would serve to block Chile’s final attempt, and send them home.
Colombia v Uruguay, 2-0
Without their chief goal scorer Luis Suárez, Uruguay were even more of an underdog going into the knockout round then before. Colombia had gone undefeated through the group stage, and were heavy favorites to go through to the quarterfinals.
What seemed lackluster in comparison to the morning game with Brazil and Chile, James Rodriguez would be the hero for Colombia, starting with a volley off his chest, with a laser shot ricocheting off the top bar for goal. Rodriguez would get his brace early in the second half at the 50th minute. Try as they might, Uruguay could not get a rhythm going well enough to make a dent in the Columbian back field, would go home goalless in the match.
Colombia move on to their first ever quarterfinals facing Brazil on July 4.
June 29, The second day of the knockout stage, Netherlands v Mexico in the morning and Costa Rica v Greece in the afternoon.