Vinicius suspended

Brazil save themselves for the Copa quarter-finals

Raphinha celebrates his goal(Bild: AFP/GETTY IMAGES/Thearon W. Henderson)

Brazil have qualified for the quarter-finals of the Copa América with a hard-fought draw against Colombia. The teams drew 1-1 (1-1) at Levi's Stadium in the US city of Santa Clara on Tuesday to finish Group D unbeaten.

The Colombians (7) were already through to the next round and secured first place ahead of the Seleção (5), who were held to a draw for the second time after a 0-0 draw against Costa Rica.

The Brazilians will play Uruguay in the quarter-finals on Sunday without Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior, who is suspended for yellow cards, while Colombia will play Panama. Defending champions Argentina will face Ecuador on Friday, with the surprise team from Venezuela playing Canada a day later.

At least one spell broken
Brazil and Colombia produced a heated match in front of 70,971 spectators, with many intense duels and several yellow cards. The first goal was scored after twelve minutes: Raphinha curled a free-kick over the wall into the top right-hand corner. According to "O Globo", it was Brazil's first free-kick goal in more than four and a half years. The last time Philippe Coutinho scored was against South Korea on November 19, 2019.

But Colombia did not hide, with full-back Daniel Muñoz equalizing shortly before the break after a beautiful move. There were no further highlights after the restart. As a result, the Colombians remain unbeaten in international matches since the start of 2022, a run that now stretches to 26 games. However, a run of ten match wins in a row came to an end.

In the parallel match in Austin, Costa Rica (4) won 2:1 against Paraguay with no points, which was not enough to progress. Paraguay lost all their group games for the first time since 1925.