Ospina penalty heroics send Colombia through

In a nail-biting finish at East Rutherford, Colombia defeated Peru 4-2 in penalties to enter the semi-final of the Copa America Centenario.

Colombia are the second team to qualify for Copa America semifinal, after beating Perù in the semifinal played in New Jersey last night. “This is what we hoped for after breaking through in Brazil after getting out of the group of death”.

“You need to be calm at these moments”.

Before an overwhelmingly pro-Colombia crowd wearing mostly yellow, Rodriguez had the best chance of the first half, taking a layoff from Edwin Cardona in the 22nd minute, dribbling through the midfield and curling a 23-yard right-footed shot that bounced off the inside of a post.

“But we are also looking at this in a positive way because we have not lost a single game”. But as Colombia eventually navigated the shootout, the final cathartic roar from their fans was spectacle enough.

It was a rather tame quarterfinals match between surprise Group A winners Peru and Group B runner up Colombia. Compact, aggressive, multiple men behind the ball and always, it seemed, keeping eyes firmly on the clock.

They will play the victor of Mexico vs. Chile tomorrow night. To their credit, Peru stifled the Colombian attack with key interceptions and tackles – a theme for most of this encounter.

The form of Pedro Gallese may have given them confidence coming into the game, though in truth, he wasn’t called on all that often, other than to narrow the angles for shots that passed both him and the woodwork. We had a lot of trust in the players in conducting themselves in the game, but Peru did mark the players very well.

Peru matched Colombia kick for kick through the first two rounds of penalties.

Peru nearly snatched victory deep into injury time however when Christian Ramos headed powerfully towards goal from Cueva’s corner.

On more than one occasion Bacca had failed to capitalise on James’ excellent build up play and even his rebounds as the Real Madrid bench warmer kept running down Peruvian defenders.

After neither side found the net within 90 minutes, penalties would decide who made it into the semi-finals of the centenary tournament.

Peru have their own version of this combination, of course. Two minutes later it was all over.

“They showed us what Peru can deliver”, Pekerman said.

So what of James and Bacca?

The better combinations, certainly the most numerous, came from James and Bacca. “We have the resources to bring a good match and to go out to win”. We didn’t, until penalties of course.

Asked by Sportsmail if he would be staying at Arsenal next season, Ospina replied: ‘I don’t know, I don’t know what’s going to happen.