On the morning of July 7, at Allegiant Stadium (Las Vegas, Nevada, USA), Brazil lost to Uruguay 2-4 in a penalty shootout in the quarter-finals of Copa America 2024.
Like Argentina, the Brazilian team could not overcome Uruguay in the official match time. At the end of 90 minutes, the team of Dorival Júnior only had a 0-0 draw. This result forced the two teams to enter a series of lucky penalty shootouts.
On the 11m mark, Eder Militao and Douglas Luiz failed to take their shots for Brazil. Meanwhile, Uruguay only had one player who missed a shot, Jose Jimenez.
Thus, Brazil was officially eliminated from Copa America 2024. Uruguay advanced to the semi-finals and will face Colombia, the team that had a resounding 5-0 victory over Panama a few hours earlier.
Uruguay’s Nahitan Nandez fouls Brazil’s Rodrygo Goes
Defeat to Uruguay, Brazil can only blame themselves. They had one more man in the last 15 minutes when Nahitan Nandez received a straight red card from referee Darío Herrera.
The Uruguayan player had a rough tackle on Rodrygo Goes. After consulting VAR, the Argentinian referee decided to send Nahitan Nandez off.
Contrary to the experts’ predictions about the promising performance of the two leading South American teams, what happened at the Allegiant Stadium was marked by a series of fouls (41 times). Of these, Brazil committed 15 fouls, while Uruguay committed 26.
Both teams still had dangerous shots on goal, but all stopped at the chance level. Uruguay’s expected goals (xG) in this match was 0.95, while Brazil’s xG was 0.55.
Throughout the match, Brazil controlled the ball 58% of the time, had 7 shots, 3 of which were on target. At the other end of the field, Uruguay had 12 shots, 3 of which were on target.
On a day without Vinicius Junior, the strength of the Brazilian team decreased
The absence of striker Vinicius Junior due to suspension has become part of the reason for Brazil’s decline in strength. Meanwhile, Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay team has reasonable tactics, they defend firmly and wait for opportunities through counter-attacks.
By eliminating Brazil from the 2024 Copa America, Uruguay has shown that they are a formidable team. In fact, the performance of “La Celeste” (Uruguay’s nickname) has been very stable recently.
In the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in South America, Bielsa’s team is currently in second place. They beat Brazil in October 2023 and defeated Argentina – the reigning 2022 World Cup champions – right at the Alberto José Armando Stadium in Buenos Aires.