Buenos Aires, Argentina – Argentina and Colombia battled to a scoreless draw on Friday in a physical affair between the first and third place sides in South American World Cup qualifying.
It was chippy right from the outset as Colombia's Abdel Aguilar was shown the yellow card by referee Marlon Escalante just 15 minutes into the match.
Both teams then went down to 10 men in the 25th minute as Argentina's Gonzalo Higuain and Colombia's Cristian Zapata were both sent off.
Scoring chances were at a premium all night, but the physicality kept up as Escalante handed out seven more yellow cards after the 26th minute of play.
Argentina managed two shots on target, while Colombia had three, but neither side really looked like finding the back of the net as they shared the points.
Argentina remains on top of the group with 25 points from 12 matches, while Colombia stays in third place on 20 points from 11 games played.
Elsewhere in South American qualifying on Friday, Juan Arango scored in the 58th minute but it was canceled out by a goal from Jhasmani Campos four minutes from time as Bolivia and Venezuela battled to a 1-1 draw, while Eduardo Vargas and Arturo Vidal found the back of the net on either side of the intermission as Chile edged Paraguay by a 2-1 count.
In Friday's final South American qualifier, Claudio Pizarro found the back of the net just 11 minutes in as Peru knocked off Ecuador by a 1-0 score.
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