Colombia's James Rodriguez celebrates after scoring a goal during the 2014 World Cup Group C soccer match between Japan and Colombia at the Pantanal arena
Colombia's James Rodriguez celebrates after scoring a goal during the 2014 World Cup Group C soccer match between Japan and Colombia at the Pantanal arena in Cuiaba June 24, 2014. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

The clash between Colombia and Uruguay was plagued with controversy even before it started due to the decision made by FIFA to send Uruguay's star striker Luis Suarez home after he was proven to have shown conduct unbecoming of a sportsman by biting Italy's Giorgio Chiellini in their final group stage match. Things did not look any better for Uruguay as they were all sent home to follow Luis Suarez back to Uruguay when Colombia defeated them in the round of 16.

Colombia 2-0 Uruguay

James Rodriguez was the culprit as he scored a brace against Uruguay to put Colombia through to the quarterfinals where they will be going up against host nation Brazil.

With 8 out of 16 teams in the knockout stage from the Americas, it was inevitable that some of them would cancel each other out. Such was the case for Brazil who took out Chile and the same happened with Colombia and Uruguay.

Rodriguez brace

Rodriguez scored a goal on the 28th minute and Uruguay were quick to attempt a counter attack only to be thwarted by flawless defending by the Colombians. Rodriguez stuck another goal five minutes into the second half which put the Colombians up 2-0 with plenty of time for Uruguay to fight back. The 22-year old is quickly becoming one of the revelations of this World Cup.

"It's historic, a dream come true: I always wanted to score in the Maracana and now I have. If you want to win, every player is important. Uruguay had a lot of men behind the ball, so we needed plenty of movement up front and we got it. Now things are going to get even harder, but we can go far" said man of the match James Rodriguez in the post-match press conference.

Uruguay attempt to fight back

Uruguay kept pressing on making 16 attempts at goal in contrast to Colombia's 10. However, despite furious attempts, Colombia were able to rely on superior defending and goalkeeping to hold Uruguay down to a blank slate.

"We had to take risks to reduce the deficit, but we came up against a 'keeper who performed extraordinarily well and didn't let us back into the match. But I'm proud of these players: once again they showed character and gave it their all." said Oscar Tabarez, Uruguay's coach about their failure to break through Colombia's defence.