Uruguay's Recent Slump In Form: The decline in form of Uruguay national team has baffled football fans around the globe, as from being a side who stunned the football world by handing Argentina their first loss since their 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia at FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar, to now going on a winless run for eight consecutive matches.
Before the start of Copa America 2024, everyone picked Argentina as their favourites, but what was interesting is the fact that the team after Argentina as the 2nd most favourite was not the mighty Brazil, but Uruguay, as their brand of football was grabbing eyeballs all over the world.
Marcelo Biesla has completely turned around things for Uruguay and has helped the country elevate it's standards of football with the introduction of young stars such as Federico Valverde, Ronaldo Araujo, Darwin Nunez, Rodrigo Bentancur, and many more.
La Celeste started their Copa America 2024 campaign on a stellar note, as they defeated Panama 3-1, which was followed by a 5-0 drubbing of Bolivia, and 1-0 winvs USA.
After ending their group stage as winners, Uruguay faced an out-of-form, sluggish Brazil in their quarter-final fixture, and inspite of losing Ronald Araujo in the first-half (injury), and Nahitan Mandez in the second-half (red card), Uruguay managed to prevail and ousted Brazil 4-2 on penalties.
Their stellar run came to a heart-breaking end in the semi-finals, as they faced a rock-solid Colombia side, who went from dark horses, to the ultimate favourites.
At the full-time whistle, it ended 1-0 in favour of La Tri, who took on Argentina in the final of Copa America, but eventually lost to the reigning champions, who defended their title successfully.
Uruguay's Slump-In-Form Post-Copa America 2024
Uruguay's decline started with their defeat to Colombia, as statistically, they drew Brazil but eventually won. After their 1-0 defeat to Colombia, Uruguay took on Canada in the third-place match, where they were stunned in regular time as the match ended 2-2, but prevailed on penalties to grab the third place.
A 1-1 draw in a friendly against Guatemala was not much of a concern but hardly few knew what was up next for La Celeste, as the side managed to go winless in their next four FIFA World Cup 2026 CONMEBOL Qualification matches, resulting in them falling down to third place, behind leaders Argentina by 6 points, and second-placed Colombia by 3 points.