Brazil and Colombia face off tonight at Levi’s Stadium, near San Francisco, to determine the final positions in Group D of the Copa América 2024. Although these teams frequently face each other, the most significant clash in recent times dates back almost exactly a decade.
On July 4, 2014, they met in the quarterfinals of the World Cup in a match played at Estadio Castelão in Fortaleza. It was a 2-1 victory for Luiz Felipe Scolari’s team, with goals from Thiago Silva and David Luiz (with a spectacular free kick), while James Rodríguez scored for Colombia 10 minutes before the end.
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However, the match is more remembered for its fouls and controversies than for the result. It was the match with the most fouls in that World Cup: 31 committed by Brazil and 23 by Colombia, with only four yellow cards shown by Spanish referee Carlos Velasco Carballo.
One of the most memorable moments was the knee strike by Colombian defender Juan Camilo Zúñiga to Neymar’s back near the end of the match. The star player ended up with a fractured vertebra and could not play in the historic semifinal, which Germany won 7-1 before becoming the tournament champions.
In Colombia, the phrase “it was Yepes’ goal” became popular, arguing that it was a refereeing error to disallow a goal by Mario Yepes in the 65th minute when his team was trailing 1-0. There was a similar precedent: in 2004, the same defender had a goal disallowed in a match against Brazil during the World Cup qualifiers due to an incorrect offside call.
