(REUTERS) – COLOMBIA’S Yerry Mina thumped home a second-half header to secure a dramatic 1-0 victory over Senegal on Thursday that catapulted the South Americans into the World Cup last 16 and dumped their African opponents out of the tournament.

Senegal had only needed a point in their final Group H game to reach the next round, but they will head home after missing out on the runners-up spot to Japan because they had a worse disciplinary record.

It was the first time in World Cup history that a team had been eliminated by the amount of yellow cards they had accrued in the tournament.

Both Senegal and Japan, who were beaten 1-0 by Poland on Thursday, finished the group with four points and an identical record in all other respects. Yet the Asian side ended in second position having picked up four yellow cards to Senegal’s six.

Colombia, top of the standings with six points, face a last-16 match against Group G runners-up England on Tuesday.

Defeat for Senegal eliminated them at the group stage in their first World Cup appearance since 2002, and left Africa without a representative in the knockout stages for the first time in 36 years.

“Senegal doesn’t qualify because we don’t deserve it. This is one of the rules,” their coach Aliou Cisse said.

“We have to respect it. We would prefer to be eliminated another way… We were fully committed and maybe because we were fully committed, we got more yellow cards.”

Senegal had been heading through until the 74th minute when Mina rose to meet a corner and sent a bullet-header into the turf and bouncing up into the roof of the net.