A goal from the center-back Facundo González gave Uruguay a 1-0 victory over Colombia on Tuesday in a rocky and even match on the first day of the final hexagonal of the South American Sub’20.
Marcelo Broli’s team came out with everything on the field of the El Campín stadium, with 28,187 fans in the stands, where they drowned Colombia with their high pressure in the first minutes and had their first goal opportunity in the opening minute with a shot from long distance from Damián García who almost surprises the Colombian goalkeeper Luis Marquines.
In this section, the hosts had many difficulties due to the good work of players like Luciano Rodríguez, Fabricio Díaz, Álvaro Rodríguez and Franco González, especially, who were causing a headache for the local defenders with their mobility and pressure.
The clearest of the Celeste reached 11 in a collective play between González and Renzo Sánchez that ended with a shot in the area by Luciano Rodríguez that crashed horizontally.
However, Colombia began to shake off La Celeste’s dominance as the minutes passed and had its clearest opportunity at 30 when Juan Castilla received a cross pass on the side of the area and, with a single touch, left Óscar ready. Cortés, who took a shot that bothered the Uruguayan goalkeeper Randall Rodríguez.
The Uruguayan team, meanwhile, appealed to the counterattack and had another clear one with a shot from González that was saved on the line by the center-back Kevin Mantilla, who plays for Independiente Santa Fe.
The game went back and forth, as La Celeste almost scored with a shot from Luciano Rodríguez that came close to the Colombian goal, while those led by Héctor Cárdenas had another important one with a shot from midfielder Juan Castilla that was about to miss. enter the goal of Randall Rodríguez.
In the second half, the game was played longer in Charrúa territory than in local territory. The baton for the locals was taken by captain Gustavo Puerta, recently signed by Bayer Leverkusen, and Csatillo Manyoma.
However, the speed of the Uruguayan attackers continued to be a danger factor for the hosts, who suffered every time their rivals managed to string together dangerous attacking plays.
As the minutes passed, the game began to fight more than what was being played. The teams reached the rival goal less often with danger and players like the Colombians Miguel Monsalve and Isaac Zuleta or the Uruguayan Juan de los Santos, who entered in the second half, weighed little in the match.
However, La Celeste got the goal from a free kick taken by Fabricio Díaz and in which the goalkeeper Marquines gave a rebound that the center-back González caught to celebrate the winning goal in a very close match in which those led by Marcelo Broli ratified his favoritism to win the title.
In the next round, scheduled for Friday, Uruguay will face Ecuador, which fell 3-1 with Brazil, and Colombia will play against Paraguay, which drew 1-1 with Venezuela.
Datasheet
Uruguay: Randall Rodriguez; Matthew Ponte, Sebastian Boselli, Facundo Gonzalez, Mathias de Ritis; Damian Garcia, Fabricio Diaz, Luciano Rodriguez (m.88, Valentin Gauthier), Franco Gonzalez (m.88, Nicholas Siri); Renzo Sanchez (m.82, Rodrigo Chagas) and Alvaro Rodriguez (m.68, Juan de los Santos).
Selector: Marcelo Broli.
Colombia: Louis Marquines; Edier Ocampo, Fernando Alvarez, Kevin Mantilla, Andrew Salazar; Juan Castile (m.73, Jhojan Torres), Gustavo Puerta, John Velez (m.63, Miguel Monsalve), Oscar Cortes, Alexis Castile Manyoma, and Ricardo Caraballo (m.52, Isaac Zuleta).