The elimination rounds kicked off with the host, Brazil, taking on South American counterparts Chile. The pressure was on the Brazilians to produce a win but they knew it wouldn’t be easy going against a Chile side that had shown great momentum in the group stages.
From the onset it looked like it would be a charged affair as both teams took to singing their respective national anthems in a spirited fashion.
Brazil started the game brightly, spurred on by the home support and had the Chileans pegged back. The pressure paid off though as they were able to open the scoring in the 18th minute.
Neymar delivered a corner that Brazilian captain, Thiago Silva flicked on to the far post and a tussle between David Luiz and Chile defender Gonzalo led to a deflection into the back of the net. Luiz was credited with the goal though replays showed that Gonzalo Jara had got a decisive touch to divert the ball goalward.
The lead didn’t last long though as Chile equalized 14 minutes later after a moment of sloppiness from the host. Eduardo Vargas intercepted a stray Hulk pass and slid in Sanchez, who produced the coolest of side-footed finishes.
The Brazilians had chances to restore their lead but could not find the back of the net and the teams went into the break level.
The host started the brightest from the restart and thought they had taken the lead only for Hulk’s effort to be ruled out due to a handball in the buildup. This didn’t go down well with the home fans and the decision was met by a chorus of jeers.
Both teams tried to get the winning goal with time quickly running out but despite the end to end action none of them found the net during the regular time and the game had to go into extra time.
Hulk seemed to be spurred on by the earlier disallowed goal and was at the heart of everything that the Brazilians did during extra time. Despite all the pressure it was the Chileans who almost grabbed the winner in the dying minutes of the match and the host were left thanking the heavens for the ball hitting the woodwork.
The lack of goals in extra time meant the game had to go into penalties and Julio Cesar was the hero of the day as he pulled off two saves to help his team proceed to the quarters.
The next game had Colombia take on Uruguay to determine who would face Brazil in the next round.
The Colombians dominated the early exchanges though they could only take shots from range with Uruguay seemingly content to sit deep.
The pressure did pay off however as Colombia took the lead with arguably the goal of the tournament so far.
A lofted header back towards the Uruguay penalty area was chested down on the turn by Colombia’s J Rodriguez, who then struck the ball first time on the volley into the top left-hand corner.
Uruguay were spurred on by the goal but couldn’t get the leveler in the first half and the teams went into the break with Colombia in the lead.
It got worse for Uruguay though as Colombia doubled their lead five minutes into the second half with Rodriguez getting his fifth of the tournament.
Pablo Armero put in a cross to the back post where Cuardardo nodded down the ball for Rodriguez to score from close range.
Uruguay searched for a quick response but both Cavani Christian Rodriguez failed to find the net from the chances afforded to them with Colombia storming in to the next round and setting up a clash with the host.