Raul Rudiaz wheels away in celebration after batting home the ball with his arm versus Brazil at Gillette Stadium Sunday night.
Colombia enters Friday nights match up as favorites to advance to the semi-finals of the Copa America Centenario. That won’t bother Peru however. The underdogs had a “hand” in taking down one of the tournament favorites, Brazil, and in doing so securing the top spot in group B. Unfortunately for them, however, Colombia put out a secondary squad against Costa Rica, who proved once again they shouldn’t be taken lightly. Despite already being eliminated, Costa Rica took Colombia down a notch into second place in the group, to the chagrin of Peru faithfuls.
Colombia’s roster boasts players from across Europe’s top teams, James Rodriguez from Real Madrid, Juan Cuadrado from Juventus, David Ospina from Arsenal, Carlos Bacca and Cristian Zapata from Milan and Jeison Murillo from across the city with Inter Milan. From top to bottom Colombia has an impressive squad, and the 3rd ranked team in the world will look to prove their quality against a sold out crowd.
Peru played out of a group where they were potentially the 3rd best team. The obvious favorites, Brazil, were knocked out by the Peruvians, while Ecuador, a dark horse team earned themselves a spot by not losing a single game in the group. The danger man for Peru, Jose Guerrero recently made a big money signing with Borussia Dortmund in Germany, leaving Flamengo in Brazil.. This move only proves the quality that this forward possesses in the final third. Guerrero along with Peru have flown under the radar until now. The South American underdogs will hope to extend their run in this tournament by proving yet again that they mean business.
The game kicks off at 8 PM EST at Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ.
