June 09, (THEWILL)- In the second World Cup qualifiers of this international window in the CONMEBOL, South America’s football region, Argentina’s senior men’s national football squad, La Albiceleste, were pegged back by a Miguel Borja goal in the fourth minute of stoppage time to see Colombia complete a remarkable comeback and salvage a 2-2 draw against Lionel Messi and his teammates.
In the Tuesday night match, the super-substitute, who replaced Duvan Zapata in the second half for Colombia, directed a bullet header into the net in the 94th minute for a share of the spoils after Argentina had raced to a two-goal lead inside the opening eight minutes.
It meant Argentina scored two goals before the first 10 minutes of a World Cup qualifier for the first time since 2011.
Those two rapid fire early goals from Cristian Romero and Leandro Paredes gave the Argentines a level of confidence of their victory. But, the game began to take a different turn after Colombia pulled one back early in the second half through a Luis Muriel’s spot-kick awarded against Nicolas Otamendi for catching Mateus Uribe with an elbow to the face in the box.
Just when the match seemed poised for a victory to Argentina, Borja, one of three half-time substitutes for Colombia, produced the decisive late intervention to level the scores and move his side to eight points from six games in qualifying series.
Although the resulting draw meant La Albiceleste remained undefeated, they have now drawn three of their past four qualifiers. Which will be of concern to the entire team. The single point from the draw takes them to 12 from six games in total on the road to the World Cup in Qatar.
The chance the early goals gave Argentina to take home all the points against Colombia was not taken. Possibly, the substitution of Argentine keeper, Emiliano Martinez, who was stretchered off injured after colliding with Jerry Mina in the 40th minute, meant he was not in goal to preserve their lead with his reliability but there were missed opportunities from the forwards too.
The scant consolation the Argentines will derive from the result is that, although Brazil increased the distance at the top of the CONMEBOL qualifying standings, they have maintained their unbeaten streak for another Matchday. Messi’s side has not lost in the series having won the and drawn three of six games.
This has helped them remain second, behind Brazil but will disturb their coach Lionel Scaloni. The team’s glaring inability to close out matches where they have a good lead is a factor that can be exploited by determined sides in the region especially as they look towards the commencement of the Copa America in Brazil.
Argentina is scheduled to start against Chile on Monday next week in Group A, while Colombia are due to begin against Ecuador in Group B on Sunday. Scaloni will have to make sure they iron out that disturbing trend before the competition to give his side a true fighting chance for the title, while adding some more firepower to the attack.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
