Brazil, with Barça’s Neymar Jr and Dani Alves expected to be in the starting line-up, could seal passage to the last eight of the Copa America with a win against Colombia at the Monumental David Arellano (Santiago) at 9.00pm local time (2.00am CET) tonight. The five-time World Cup winners started their campaign with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Peru. After going a goal down after just two minutes, Neymar immediately got Brazil back on level terms and with seconds remaining the Barça striker provided an impeccable assist for Douglas Costa to convert the winner.
Neymar was rewarded for his efforts with the MVP award after the game. Alves also performed outstandingly, and it was his cross that set up Neymar’s fourth minute equaliser.
Meanwhile, defeat for José Pekerman’s Colombia could well see one of the favourites for the trophy eliminated in the first round. Despite having the likes of James, Cuadrado, Falcao and Bacca in the squad, they lost their opening game 1-0 to Venezuela in arguably the biggest shock of the tournament so far. If Colombia don’t get any points out of this game either, then beating Peru in their final fixture probably wouldn’t be enough to see them through to the knockout stage.
