Jose Pekerman has conceded that his Colombia side were second best, after they were beaten 5-4 on penalties by Argentina on Friday evening.

Carlos Tevez scored the winning penalty against Pekerman's Los Cafeteros, seeing Gerardo Martino's side advance through to the semi-finals of the Copa America.

Despite receiving praise for the performance, the Colombian coach acknowledges that his side were not good enough on the day.

"Argentina played a great game and we had many difficulties in the first half," the 65-year-old said in a post-match press conference.

"We lost the ball a lot, we tried to use some width but failed, and we tried to put things right early on but just couldn't get up with the pace of the game. We improved in the second half and created some chances, but Argentina were much better.

"We have to take the result on the chin, but we deeply regret going out of the competition. This is a very tough group who always fight. The players prepared well and strove to be fit, but today we just came up against a team of great strength who were not going to let us off the hook."

Martino's Argentina will face the winner of tonight's quarter-final tie between Brazil and Paraguay in the last four.