James Rodriguez blasts Colombia past Uruguay

James Rodriguez celebrates his stunning strike against Uruguay

Colombia are starting to look like a real force and in James Rodriguez they have a genuine superstar on their hands.

Two goals from James Rodriguez were enough for Colombia as they beat Uruguay 2-0 to advance to the quarter-finals of the World Cup.

The game was always going to be a clash of styles with the flashy and exciting Colombians facing off against the industrious Uruguayans who were of course without their suspended talisman Luis Suarez.

As both sides walked out for the national anthems, the atmosphere in Rio de Janeiro was electric and Los Cafeteros were quick to assert themselves on the game, with the influential duo of James Rodriguez and Juan Cuadrado getting plenty of early touches.

In contrast, just like on some of their previous outings, Oscar Tabarez's men seemed happy to sit on the edge of the area and defend stoutly knowing that their opponents' would inevitably leave gaps for the likes of Edinson Cavani, Diego Forlan and Cristian Rodriguez to try and exploit.

However, this only allowed the Colombians to enjoy themselves with both Juan Zuniga and Cuadrado trying their luck from distance and despite barely testing Fernando Muslera in the Uruguay goal, it seemed inevitable that it would be Jose Pekerman's men who would break the deadlock.

After a few more attempts, they finally got their wish and in spectacular style as, following a nice spell of possession, the ball was nodded to James Rodriguez who took one touch off his chest before rifling a left foot volley from 25 yards in off the underside of the crossbar to open the scoring in breath-taking fashion on 28 minutes.

The Monaco man's fourth goal of the tournament seemed to spark Uruguay into life and they immediately showed more attacking endeavour, with perhaps their best chance coming from an Edinson Cavani free kick which curled just over David Ospina's net.

After that the proceedings went into something of a lull in the final minutes of the opening stanza but it was Colombia who started the second half stronger and skipper Mario Yepes almost immediately doubled their lead with a header, only for his attempt to be well blocked by Jose Maria Gimenez.

Then after a nice passage of play, Colombian left back Pablo Armero found room and whipped a brilliant ball into Cuadrado but rather than selfishly go for goal himself from a tight angle, he headed back to Rodriguez who was on hand to tap home from close range and double the Colombians' lead on 49 minutes.

Again conceding seemed to wake the Uruguayans and with Tabarez compelled to make attacking changes, there appeared to be plenty of twists and turns left in the game.

Los Cafeteros' extra quality was obvious though and they seemed to be enjoying playing to the crowd at the Maracana, stroking the ball around with finesse and aplomb, which often invited some questionable tackles from their South American cousins who at times simply couldn't get near them.

Despite the size of the challenge however, La Celeste were in no mood to give up with Cristian Rodriguez showing plenty of desire in midfield and he was perhaps unlucky not to grab an equaliser when he dribbled past a couple of defenders before unleashing a fierce left-footed strike from 25 yards only to find Ospina equal to the challenge, comfortably beating the ball away.

This wasn't the last time the goalkeeper was called into action as later Cavani forced him into a save down low to his right from the edge of the area while he also did well to scupper arguably Uruguay's chance of the match when full-back Maxi Pereira scrambled through, only for the stopper to spread himself well to maintain his clean sheet.

In the end, Colombia held on for a deserved win and Pekerman will now take his troops north to Fortaleza where they will meet the hosts Brazil on Friday evening.