The only match of the round of 16 of the World Cup to be decided on penalties was the last one. With goalkeeper Kobel as the hero, who saved a shot by Cucho Hernandez, Switzerland defeated Colombia 4-3 (regular time and extra time 0-0) and qualified for the quarter-finals of the competition, where they will face Argentina in the early hours of Sunday (12/7, 04:00). The match was played in Vancouver in front of 52,000 spectators and for 120 minutes the two teams did not find the way to the net.
This was probably the worst -in terms of quality- match of the 23rd World Cup, between two teams that were almost completely neutralised. Switzerland circulated the ball better, but the most notable phases of the game belonged to Colombia. In the 21st minute, Kober made an impressive save on Puerta’s deflected shot, while it took almost… an entire match for the Dortmund goalkeeper to intervene again on Loukoumi’s header in the 8th minute of extra time (98th minute).
A little later, in the 103rd minute, Switzerland missed their biggest chance with Amdouni on his first contact shooting from close range, but Camilo Vargas reacted with an excellent save. In the 115th minute, due to a big mistake by the Swiss defense, Campas found himself in a shooting position but shot hopelessly wide. Thus, the match went to the penalty shootout, which went as follows:
SWITZERLAND COLOMBIA
0-1 Quintero
Xhaka 1-1
Dokari Sanchez
Amdouni 2-1
2-2 Campas
Akanji Out
Save Cutso
Iten 3-2
3-3 Luis Diaz
R. Vargas 4-3
Referee: Ivan Barton (El Salvador)
Yellows: Xhaka, Zakaria, Muhaimin – Suarez, Sanchez
SWITZERLAND (Murat Yakin) : Kobel, Elvendi, Akanji, R. Rodriguez (71′ Muheim), Zakaria (87′ Widmer), Freuler, Xhaka, Jasari (46′ Shaw), Rieder (103′ Amdouni), Embolo (87′ Iten), Entoi (90+2′ Ruben Vargas)
COLOMBIA (Nestor Lorenzo ): Camilo Vargas, Munoz, Lukumi (119′ L.T. Mina), Puerta, Mojica, Sanchez, J. Rodriguez (66′ Quintero), Arias (66′ Campas), Lerma (82′ Rios), Diaz, Suarez (82′ Cucho Hernandez).