…Vctory marks their 5th Quarterfinal .
Columbia on Wednesday night at San Juan sent to the stands Slovakia in an U20 world round of 16 with a resounding 5-1 victory to set up a quarterfinal encounter with the winner of the Three Lions of England versus Junior Azzuris of Italy encounter on Saturday at the same venue.
Two players supplied Columbia two separate braces for the night. Oscar Cortes banged the opener at the 48th minute and made his brace at 90+4th minute. It will be recalled that his late equalizer of the sneaky Cortes at 90+5th minute to make 1-1 cost the African Champions, Senegal an early ouster in the tournament.
columbiaNigeria slumps to Columbia 6-5 in penalty shoot
Angel Gutlerrez supplied his brace at 52nd and 63rd minutes of play while Yaser Asprilla scored for Columbia in the 50th but Timotej Jambor through an assist by Sikula scored a consolatory goal in the 87th minute for Slovakia.
To get to the round of 16, Slovakia had thrashed Fiji Island 4-0 on 20th May; lost to Ecuador 1-2 on 23rd May and lost to USA 0-2. She emerged as a lucky loser. Slovakia’s last two matches were with Malta winning 2-1 on the 24th of March and playing 1-1 draw on the 27th March.
Columbia almost made 100% winning 2-1 over Israel that is into the Quarterfinals now; snapping Japan 2-1 and then played 1-1 draw with the African Champions, Senegal. Columbia played a barren draw with Sweden on 26th of March 2023 and forced Nigeria to 3-3 draw on home soil on 16th of May.
The two teams have never met in this age category. Slovakia is appearing for the second time at the U20 world cup finals. The first time around was in 2013 and the team lost in the round of 16.
The Coffee Growers of Columbia are appearing in the World U20 tournament for the 11th time appearing in the quarters four times in 1985; 1989; 2011 and 2019. Their best performance was in 2003 when the team won the Bronze beating Argentina 3-1 on 19th December 2003. The team had lost in the semifinal to Spain on 15th December by a lone goal via a penalty scored by Iniesta in the 86th minute. Columbia’s greatest win was 7-0 over Netherlands on 16th July 2006 but her biggest loss was 0-6 to Brazil on 1st September 1985 in the Soviet Union games.
Later today, Italy will meet England at La Plata at 2200 hours. Nigeria faces Argentina at 2200 hours at Juan. Ecuador will meet South Korea at Santiago on Thursday, 1st June at 1830 hours. Ecuador will slug it out with South Korea on Thursday at 2200 hours.
Perhaps you want to peep at the quarterfinal pairings. Israel vs Bra/Tun at San Juan on Saturday at 1830 hours. USA versus Gam/Uru on Sunday 4th June at 1830 hours. Eng/Ita vs Columbia at San Juan on Saturday 3rd June at 2200 hours. Ecu/SKor vs Arg/Ngr on Sunday at 2200 hours.
Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line.
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