(Reuters) – Colombia are on a 25-match unbeaten streak coming into Tuesday’s Copa America match against Brazil but coach Nestor Lorenzo said he does not consider his side favourites against the five-times World Cup winners.
Colombia have already booked their spot in the quarter-finals after two straight wins in Group D and need at least a draw at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara to secure top spot.
Brazil, who have won just two of their last six meetings with Colombia, sit second after drawing their opening game against Costa Rica before thrashing Paraguay 4-1.
“With Brazil you are never a favourite, they are a team with a lot of history,” Lorenzo told a news conference on Monday.
“We are just beginning to write a few pages of the history of Colombia, which has been very good at some point, but we hope for more, to maintain it, we will do our best to be up to it.
“The priority is to come out first in the group, beyond being qualified we want the first place, the team will go out to play in the best way.”
Argentine-born Lorenzo added that he expects Brazil to offer a different challenge to the side Colombia beat 2-1 in a 2026 World Cup qualifier in November, when Fernando Diniz was in charge of the nine-times Copa champions.
“The context is different, the match is similar in the number of players that will feature again and the importance we give to play against the best teams in the world,” he said.
“But the game style presented by the then coach of Brazil and (Dorival Jr) is not the same.”
(Reporting by Janina Nuno Rios in Mexico City; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
Source Agencies
