Brazil came in second place in the CONMEBOL World Cup qualifiers after winning 2:1 over Colombia, sportal.bg reported.
"Seleção" moved up five positions in the standings and is now only behind Argentina. Vinicius Junior became the hero for Dorival Junior's team, who scored the winning goal in the last seconds of the match, played at the "Mane Garrincha" stadium in the capital of Brazil.
The hosts opened the scoring in the 9th minute with a penalty goal by Rafinha, but in the 41st Luis Diaz equalized. Colombia could have even made a complete turnaround, but in the end they suffered a defeat and dropped to sixth place in the standings with 19 points, the same as Ecuador.
The Brazilians also drew their previous two matches - against Venezuela and Uruguay, while Colombia lost consecutively to the "Uruguays" and Ecuador.
At the beginning of the qualifiers, the two teams met in Barranquilla and Colombia prevailed 2:1, although Gabriel Martinelli opened the scoring for the "Seleção". Then the hosts made a turnaround with two goals from Luis Diaz, who also shot past Alisson Becker today.
Brazil was looking for revenge and took the lead in the 6th minute. Vinicius Junior was brought down in the penalty area by Daniel Muñoz, and Rafinha made no mistake from the penalty spot. In the 14th minute, Rodrigo missed to double the lead of the five-time world champions. Midway through the half, Gerson was injured and gave way to Joelinton.
Colombia attacked less often, but James Rodriguez's clever passes several times created confusion in the defense in front of Alisson. In the 41st minute, the guests took the ball away from the penalty spot, James passed to Luis Diaz and he shot accurately into the far corner for 1:1.
At the beginning of the second half, Camilo Vargas saved a shot by Vinicius, and then prevented Rafinha from scoring again. Dorival Junior strengthened their attack by introducing Mateus Cunha, and John Cordoba from the guests shot dangerously with a header. In the 64th minute, a goal for Colombia was disallowed for a foul on Alisson.
A quarter of an hour before the end of the match, Davinson Sanchez collided with Alisson, both of whom were unable to continue and were substituted. Bento stood in goal for Brazil, and besides him, Savinho, Andre and Wesley appeared on the field.
The referee called for 10 minutes of added time and shortly before it expired, Brazil snatched the victory. Rafinha combined with Vinicius, and the Real Madrid winger masterfully found the far corner of the visitors' goal and brought the three points to the "seleção".
On Sunday, the Brazilians will visit world champion Argentina, and Colombia's next match is at home against Paraguay.