Switzerland beat Colombia on penalties to set up Argentina quarterfinal

Gregor Kobel was Switzerland’s penalty hero as he pulled off a stunning shootout save from Colombia’s Cucho Hernandez to help set up a quarter-final clash with Argentina.

The keeper pushed away Hernandez’s spot kick after centre-backs from both sides had earlier missed in the tense last-16 tie at BC Place Vancouver.

Colombia’s Davinson Sanchez rattled the underside of the bar but former Manchester City defender Manuel Akanji skied his spot kick to restore the balance, the BBC reports.

But Kobel’s stop from Hernandez proved decisive before Cedric Itten and Ruben Vargas scored to add to earlier successful penalties taken by Granit Xhaka and Zeki Amdouni.

Switzerland won the shootout 4-3 to advance.

Murat Yakin’s side have reached the last eight of the World Cup for the first time since 1954 and they will face reigning champions Argentina at Kansas City Stadium on Sunday.

Extra-time and the penalty shootout followed a rather uneventful 90 minutes in which both sides struggled to create many great chances.

Jhon Lucumi went close for Colombia but his header from a corner struck the crossbar.

A long-range effort from substitute Jaminton Campaz then forced an unorthodox save from the Swiss keeper as the game threatened to burst into life in the first half of extra-time.

Colombia should have won it late in extra-time but Campaz curled a shot over after a defensive mishap from Xhaka.

It was a miss they would live to regret as the South Americans suffered shootout heartbreak again after losing to England in 2018 on spot kicks at this stage.

Colombia exit having conceded just one goal in the tournament.

They topped their group ahead of Portugal to give them a more favourable path in the knockout stages and they saw off Ghana in the last 32.

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