Colombia defender Luis Amaranto Perea believes los Cafeteros have a historic chance to reach the first World Cup finals after 1998.
Colombia started the 2014 World Cup qualifiers with a valuable win in Bolivia, with Luis Perea captaining the site for the first time in his career.
“People will say that anyone can beat Bolivia but that’s not the case,” Perea told FIFA.com.
“My emotions got the better of me at the end of the game because my team-mates were absolutely shattered. They’d given everything they had. A lot of things came together and that’s why that win meant so much to us.”
The Atletico Madrid defender, nevertheless, believes that his side are still in for a tough task of reaching the final tournament.
“Getting to the World Cup is much tougher than the World Cup itself. You’ve got three games at the World Cup and if you do well you’re into the knockout rounds, which more or less means you’ve had a good tournament.
“It’s getting there that’s the hard bit, though. There’s not much between the teams and coaches have very little time to prepare games.”
Colombia play host to Venezuela on Friday night, hoping to record the second victory of the campaign, with los Cafeteros priced at 1.57 (4/7) with Paddy Power.
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