Brazil’s football squad play poorly, lose to Colombia in Barranquilla

The Brazilian national team did start off ahead, but played poorly at the Metropolitano stadium in Barranquilla and were beaten 2–1 by Colombia in a match for the fifth round of the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.

The setback sent Brazil down to fifth place in the competition standings, with seven points. The lead is held by Argentina (12 points), who, despite playing in Bueno Aires, were beaten 2–0 by Uruguay, who are now second, with 10 points. Colombia are in third place, with nine points, while Venezuela, who were held 0–0 by Ecuador, are in fourth place with eight points.

Relying on an attacking quartet made up of Rodrygo, Raphinha, Vinícius Júnior, and Gabriel Martinelli, coach Fernando Diniz saw the team perform well in the early stages of the match and open the scoring early on, in the third minute, when Martinelli took advantage of a pass from Vinícius Júnior to finish and outpace goalkeeper Vargas.

However, in the 26th minute Vinícius Júnior had to leave the pitch after suffering a muscle injury. Without the Real Madrid (Spain) player, one of the team’s technical highlights in recent games, the team’s performance dropped sharply. This decline became more pronounced in the final stage, after Rodrygo was substituted in the 22nd minute.

From then on, Fernando Diniz’s side fell apart and saw striker Luis Díaz take advantage of two high shots (in the 29th and 33rd minutes) to turn the score in favor of the home side, who had never beaten Brazil in the history of South American qualifiers.