Colombia in Copa quarters with win over Qatar

A late goal from Duvan Zapata, his second in two games, gave Colombia a 1-0 win over Qatar on Wednesday and guaranteed their place in the quarterfinals of the Copa America.

Zapata rose with five minutes left to head home a floated cross from man-of-the-match James Rodriguez and break the deadlock in a scrappy but end to end encounter at Sao Paulo's Morumbi stadium.

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The result means Colombia, who beat Argentina 2-0 in their opening match, now have six points and top Group B, with Argentina drawing Paraguay 1-1 later on Wednesday.

Qatar have one point after drawing 2-2 with Paraguay on Sunday but could still qualify for the last eight.

Colombia were the better team in the first half, with Roger Martinez having a goal ruled out for offside after just five minutes and James putting a free header wide eight minutes later.

Asian champions Qatar, one of the two non-South American teams invited, improved in the second period but just as the game looked destined to finish goalless, Zapata gave Colombia all three points.

"We're on the right track but we're still a long way from achieving all we really want," James told reporters.

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"In the end, those types of matches are decided by the details. And today was the case.

"Duvan [Zapata] was really important today. We put up a lot of pressure, we played really good.

"In the end, I think [the result] was fair. We're happy for the win and already thinking [of the] quarterfinals."

A poor crowd of just over 22,000 people watched the game on a chilly night.

The final games in the group take place on Sunday when Colombia face Paraguay and Qatar play Argentina.