Colombia and Venezuela kicked off Thursday night’s Group B action and a feisty draw sees both sides share the points at the Estadio Olimpico Pedro Ludovico.
Scorers: N/A
Colombia0
Venezuela0
The first half was dominated by Colombia with Serie A stars Juan Cuadrado and Duván Zapata causing problems all over the pitch.
However, despite continuous waves of attack, Venezuela’s defence stood strong particularly thanks to the talents of goalkeeper Wuilker Faríñez.
His five saves in the first half are the most saves by a Venezuelan goalkeeper in the first half of a Copa América game since 2007, as per Opta stats.
After the break, both teams pushed to break the deadlock but neither side could find a breakthrough and tensions started to rise.
Colombia thought they had stolen all three points in the dying moments of the match but the goal was ruled out due to offside.
Later on, Faríñez made another game-saving stop to deny Colombia in stoppage time.
Right before the final whistle, Luis Díaz was shown a direct red to see Colombia end the match with 10 men.
With the result, Colombia have four points and Venezuela have one.
