They play together, their families share many spaces in England and they even arrived on the same flight to Barranquilla. But this weekLuis Díaz and Darwin Núñez are rivals and each one fights for their interests, those of Colombia, in the case of the first, and those of Uruguay, in the case of the second.
Both Lucho and Núñez are the leaders of a renewal in their respective teams. In Colombia, the 26-year-old guajiro is today the figure to show, although he still has a lot to show: he has three goals in 18 qualifying games. On the route to North America 2026, for now, he is going blank.
Núñez, in turn, lined up in the last tie behind the two historic forwards of the Celeste, Luis Suárez and Edinson Cavani. He only scored one goal in 12 games. But he did that much in a terrain that will now be known: it was in the painful 0-3 of the last qualifying round in Barranquilla, the beginning of the end of the era of the Portuguese Carlos Queiroz.
Díaz and Núñez already know what it means to be rivals, and not only in the National Team. One was a bannerman for Porto and the other for Benfica, before their paths crossed at Liverpool. And on the flight that took them to Barranquilla, there were many things to talk about. There is even almost a bet involved, although the Colombian assures that it did not materialize.
“We didn’t manage to place bets, we were close (laughs). We talk a lot, we play on the plane a lot. More than anything we talked about how the game was going to be difficult. We joked that ‘you were going to lose’, and so on. We wish each other the best and that the best will win,” Díaz said in a contact with the Colombian press on Monday in Barranquilla.
One of the topics of conversation on the long flight from England to Colombia was the weather. Historically, Uruguay had a difficult time playing in Barranquilla, even though they scored points in the last two visits (draw in 2016 and victory in 2020). The 3:30 p.m. time offers a combination of heat and humidity that makes it difficult for those who are not used to it. And that includes many of the Colombian players.
Díaz has a mark in that sense, with his steps through Barranquilla, in B, and Junior. “He (Núñez) knows that the heat issue is tough, that it is hard to play at that time. He took well what I told him about the temperature. Now it’s his turn for the best to win. We are going to go look for the result,” declared the guajiro.
Nuñez, in a conversation with Caracol TV, confirmed that the heat was a topic of conversation. “We were talking about the weather and each other’s teams. They have a good team, so do we. “It is going to be a nice game to play,” he expressed.
The figures of Luis Díaz and Darwin Núñez in the current tie
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