NOW, that sets it up beautifully.Colombia and Uruguay face-off in an all-South American round-of-16 clash at the Maracana Stadium here on Saturday with both sides missing their talismanic strikers.

The Colombians came to the World Cup with leading marksman Radamel Falcao already out through injury and now the Uruguayans have lost Luis Suarez to a nine-match ban for biting Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini’s shoulder.

Uruguayan captain Diego Lugano said Suarez’s ban would not deter his side from achieving their final goal, saying it would rather unite them.

“Those who rule, rule, and the strong ones are the strong ones... Keep feeling proud of him [Suarez], he deserves it,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday.

“Nothing will stop us. We will carry on with humility, union, deter­mination, recognition of mistakes, and with our heads always high.”

Suarez had been crucial to Uruguay’s campaign.

Having missed Uruguay’s 3-1 defeat to Costa Rica in their group opener as he was recovering from a surgery on his knee just 22 days before the World Cup, he made his mark at the tournament with aplomb.

Suarez scored twice against England in a 2-1 win which he described he’d “dreamt it” and it put Uruguay back in contention for the round-of-16.But his World Cup ended a game after it started as he bit Chiellini moments before Diego Godin headed in Uruguay’s winner on Tuesday.

The referee didn’t notice despite Chiellin’s remonstrations but FIFA took action.And now Uruguay will have to do without their inspirational striker.Oscar Tabarez’s team, however, does have able replacements for Suarez with Edinson Cavani and Diego Forlan – voted the World Cup’s best player in 2010 when Uruguay reached the semi-finals.

Colombia, meanwhile, have been coping well without Falcao, who was seen crucial to their chances of progress at the finals in what was their first appearance since 1998.Falcao’s Monaco team-mate James Rodriguez has been in sensational form for the Colombians who reached the knockout stage with a perfect record of three wins from three with the playmaker scoring in each match.

“The team has a huge motivation and I think that people have been an important part in everything that has happened,” said striker Jackson Martinez.

“We have felt an immense support, not only of Colombians but also of Brazilians,” added the FC Porto man who scored twice in their 4-1 drubbing of Japan in their final Group ‘C’ game on Tuesday which came of the back of a 3-0 win over Greece and a 2-1 victory over the Ivory Coast.“We have to go step by step, we cannot think of the quarters when we have an important match against Uruguay in the second round, which will define what this group has been looking for.”

Falcao failed to recover from a knee injury he suffered in January while playing for Monaco and despite the striker trying his best to regain fitness, Colombia coach he was left out.

But if Colombia were to overcome their South American counterparts, maybe the fact that they are missing Falcao, who scored nine goals during qualifying, would be completely forgotten — if that hasn’t been forgotten already. 

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2014