Copa América: Peru defeats Colombia and achieves first victory; Venezuela ties with Ecuador

(Reuters) – The Peruvian soccer team beat Colombia 2-1 on Sunday thanks to a goal from Yerry Mina in their own goal and recovered from the hard defeat suffered by Brazil in their debut in Group B of the Copa América.

Copa América: results, goals and classification, minute by minute

With the victory, Peru also maintained its 20-year unbeaten streak against Colombia in the main national team competition on the continent, with two games won and three drawn since the 3-0 defeat in the 2001 edition.

In the match played at the Goiania Olympic Stadium, Colombia started better and brought danger to the rival goal through shots from Juan Cuadrado and Miguel Borja that were deflected at 12 and 14 minutes, respectively.

Two minutes later, on their first approach, Peru opened the scoring when Sergio Peña pushed the ball into the net after a long-distance shot from Yoshimar Yotún that hit a post.

In the second stage, the Colombian team tied at 52 minutes thanks to a penalty converted by Borja, after an infraction by goalkeeper Pedro Gallese on the same striker.

The winning goal for Peru came in the 64th minute by a goal against his goal by Yerry Mina as he took the ball ahead on a corner kick from the right.

«This is football, you make mistakes and they charge you. Now we have to rest and prepare for the game against Brazil, “Colombian Wilmar Barrios told television after the defeat.

Brazil leads Group B with six points, Colombia continues with four and Peru has three, while Venezuela has two units and Ecuador closes with one.

In the next round, which will be played on Wednesday, Colombia will face local Brazil, while Peru will play Ecuador.

Venezuela comes back twice to tie with Ecuador

(Photo by MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP via Getty Images)

The Venezuelan soccer team twice came back from an adverse result to achieve a 2-2 draw in the last gasp of their match against Ecuador for the first phase of the Copa América on Sunday.

Ronald Hernández scored in the 91st minute with a head blow the goal that equalized the result and maintained the chances of “Vinotinto” to qualify for the quarterfinals of the national team tournament that takes place in Brazil.

The Ecuadorian team opened the scoring 39 minutes into the first half that they almost completely dominated. Forward Ayrton Preciado scored with a shot from the center of the area after a succession of rebounds following a free kick.

Venezuela reacted in the second half with a goal from Edson Castillo, who received a precise cross from José Andrés Martínez and matched the result with a header in the 51st minute. Gustavo Alfaro’s team charged again and Gonzalo Plata put “La Tri” back in the lead after an impressive counterattack in the 71st minute.

In their surprising comeback, Venezuela drew again with both Hernández, after the qualification of his teammate Edson Castillo.

With this result, Ecuador, which fell to Colombia 1-0 in its first match, accumulated its first point in the tournament, while the Venezuelan team, which had drawn 0-0 with Colombia and debuted with a 3- defeat. 0 against defending champion Brazil, added two units.