Manchester United’s Facundo Pellistri and Uruguay crashed out of Copa America despite playing half of the game with a man advantage.

The Uruguayans had squeezed past Brazil in the previous round but there was to be no repeat as Colombia won 1-0 and booked their place against United duo Lisandro Martinez and Alejandro Garnacho’s Argentina in the final.

The 15-time tournament winners trailed in the 39th minute when Jefferson Lerma nodded in from a corner after squandering a few obvious first-half opportunities. When Daniel Muñoz was shown a second yellow card in extra time of the first half, Uruguay’s opponents were reduced to ten men and had a big advantage.

La Celeste had 62% of the ball, but they were unable to capitalize on their good fortune and failed to score an equalizing goal.

They managed 11 shots on goal, the same as Colombia, and could only muster two shots on target despite playing the entire second half with an extra man.

Pellistri had a very poor game and he was subbed off during the half-time break.

Despite starting the tournament very strongly with a goal and an assist, the winger has faded as the competition has worn on.

The winger was given a score of 6.7 on Sofascore for his night’s work in Charlotte.

He completed only one dribble attempt in the game and had a meagre 11 touches of the ball.

He had a pass rate of 75% but he only managed to complete three out of four, highlighting the winger’s peripheral influence on the game.

Nonetheless, one of those passes was a key pass but it did not end up in a reward for his nation. He also failed to get any sort shot on or off target during the semi-final.

Defensively he won two out of his four ground duels and he lost his only aerial battle. The attacker also completed one tackle in the match.

Now, Pellistri’s team will play Canada in the third-place playoff on Saturday night (Sunday early UK time), hoping to get over the setback of their performance the previous night.

Now that the South Americans can no longer win the competition, United supporters will also be hoping that a move for Uruguay’s Manuel Ugarte may happen more quickly. Similarly, the Netherlands’ defeat to England in the Euro 2024 should hasten the completion of the agreements for Joshua Zirkzee and Matthijs de Ligt.