Brazil’s Vinicius Jr. won’t be playing in team’s 2024 Copa America quarterfinal against Uruguay after picking up his second yellow card in the group stage matches.

The Real Madrid forward got his second yellow card in Group D’s last match against Columbia on Tuesday (Jul 2). The game ended in 1-1 draw as Brazil finished second behind Columbia in the group standings.

Vinicius got the card for appearing to hit Columbia striker James Rodriguez in the first half.

Brazil manager Dorival Junior wasn’t much pleased with the referee’s decision and said: ”It’s a situation that happened in the game. In the first move, which was accidental for me, he ended up getting the first card. Everything that happened was very strange.”

“Recently I heard that Brazil had to learn to play without their big players. I think it’s time … Vini happens to be out, and unfortunately we lost Neymar [to injury before the tournament]. We have to learn that at times, others will have to appear. We’ll have a difficult game against Uruguay.”

Brazil full-back and Vini Jr’s teammate Danilo, however, is confident of other players rising up to the occasion in Real Madrid star’s absence.

“Vini is a top player who can win games for us. But we have other players with a lot of quality and potential, and let’s try to make up for Vini’s absence,” Danilo said.

Dorvial was also unhappy with referee’s failure to give a penalty five minutes Columbia’s equalizer and said: “At that moment, it would have been 2-0. With the speed we have, the team we have, a scoreline of 2-0 is very different to 1-0. For me, it was decisive.”

Earlier, US men’s national team also blasted officiating after their tournament-ending loss against Uruguay. USNMT were not happy with a goal allowed by opposition on off-side.

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