He didn't take the field, but he celebrated anyway. Yerry Mina celebrated from the bench as Colombia qualified for next year's World Cup: the Cagliari defender, on a night in Italy, beat Bolivia 3-0 and secured a spot in the finals. James Rodríguez scored in the 31st minute, Jhon Córdoba in the 74th minute, and former Pescara player Juan Fernando Quintero in the 83rd minute.
The Cafeteros thus return to the World Cup after missing the 2022 edition, with huge celebrations at the final whistle and in the locker room, including Mina himself, filmed dancing with his teammates . Along with Colombia, Uruguay and Paraguay have also qualified from the South American group (along with Argentina, Brazil, and Ecuador, who were already guaranteed a spot before the summer), while Venezuela and Bolivia will battle it out for the play-off spot on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday – the final matchday.
Another of the seven Cagliari players called up to the national teams, Adam Obert, also fared well. Like Mina, he was also without a game to play, but he rejoiced in Slovakia's impressive 2-0 win against Germany, which opened their qualifying campaign . Two Serie A veterans, Dávid Hancko in the 42nd minute and Dávid Strelec in the 55th, scored in a luxurious victory that came thanks to a superb performance, infuriating German coach Julian Nagelsmann for the "lack of quality" shown by his team.
The only rossoblù player on the pitch in the opening matches was Zito Luvumbo, but he was also the only one to lose . He started in Angola's 1-0 home defeat to Libya before being substituted: his national team is now a long way from reaching the World Cup. Today— in addition to Cagliari's friendly in Buddusò at 4 p.m. —international matches include Riyad Idrissi and Marco Palestra (Italy Under-21 against Montenegro at 6:15 p.m. in La Spezia), while Joseph Liteta will play for Zambia against Morocco on Monday, and Semih Kılıçsoy will play for Turkey Under-21 against Croatia on Tuesday.