The opening 45 minutes was almost completely devoid of excitement, with the two teams managing just nine combined touches in the opposition box between them, but the second half was arguably even worse. Neither side looked remotely capable of scoring and the painfully lack of quality in the final third was probably best summed up by a horrible sliced effort from Luis Suarez that he tried to blame on a bobble when, in reality, he'd just completely mishit the ball.
Things picked up a bit in extra-time, though, as some substitutes began to make their presence felt. Jhon Lucumi hit the bar from an inviting corner from Juan Quintero, who had come on for the ineffective James Rodriguez , while Zeki Amdouni forced Camilo Vargas into action just moments after coming off the bench.
Another sub, Jaminton Campaz, then had a gilt-edged opportunity to win the game for Colombia but, with just five minutes remaining, he blazed the ball over the bar from just eight yards out after the Swiss had made a mess of clearing their lines. It proved an incredibly costly miss, as the Swiss edged the shootout to set up a quarter-final clash with Argentina.
The MVP
In a game without any really impressive performers, we're going with Ruben Vargas as our MVP simply because he wasn't expected to play any part in the proceedings due to injury. Not only did Vargas enter the fray in the 92nd minute, though, he made a decisive contribution by sticking away the spot-kick that means Switzerland are through to the last eight for the first time since they hosted the World Cup all the way back in 1954.
The big loser
It's hard not to feel seriously sorry for Luis Diaz . The Bayern Munich winger arrived in north America as a legitimate Ballon d'Or contender and he played his part in Colombia reaching the last 16. But we never really saw the best of Diaz at the World Cup. He threatened sporadically in Vancouver and converted his penalty in the spot-kick, but one could fully understand why he ended up in floods of tears after Colombia's elimination. This was precisely the kind of game that Diaz would have expected to decide in his side's favour and he just didn't deliver when his country needed him most.
