Columbia tops Ghana to achieve World Cup Spherical of 16
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The plan for Colombia in opposition to Ghana on Friday night time in all probability didn’t contain making a substitution simply minutes into the match.
That plan additionally glided by the wayside when Jhon Córdoba appeared to harm his groin.
Compelled into making a uncommon early transfer, Colombia coach Néstor Lorenzo despatched Luis Suárez onto the sector, and he promptly delivered a pointy cross that Jhon Arias flicked into the web, leading to the one objective on a sweltering night time at Arrowhead Stadium and sending Los Cafeteros into the Spherical of 16 on the World Cup with a 1-0 victory over the Black Stars.
“I feel soccer is a workforce sport,” Lorenzo mentioned. “Finally you do have little teams in sure areas, however it’s a must to have a unit — an entire — and I feel our squad has been engaged on that from the very onset. That was the objective from the very starting.”
The early objective was a very good omen: Colombia has gained 11 consecutive World Cup matches when scoring first. Now, it is going to play Switzerland on Tuesday in Vancouver, British Columbia, for a spot within the quarterfinals.
“We’ve got gained completely nothing,” Colombia star Luis Díaz mentioned. “These video games are very tough. Each sport we’ve seen has been tight. The nice factor and the optimistic factor is that we’re taking part in very effectively, we really feel snug, we’re being a household, we’re working as a workforce, and that can work for what’s coming.”
Los Cafeteros thought they’d doubled their lead within the 56th minute, when Díaz discovered the again of the web solely to see the offside flag raised, and the fleet-footed Colombia ahead had a point-blank shot saved by Lawrence Ati Zigi a couple of minutes later.
Zigi wound up making seven saves to maintain Ghana within the sport.
“Typically it occurs in soccer,” Ghana defender Jerome Opoku mentioned, “that it doesn’t go your manner.”
It was 88 levels Fahrenheit (31.1 Celsius) with a warmth index of 96 when the sport kicked off at 8:30 p.m. native time, the late begin intentional because of the anticipated warmth of Midwestern summers.
The hydration breaks which were controversial in so many matches all of the sudden turned a blessing as gamers from each side fought by dehydration and cramps.
Ghana was one in all a report 9 groups from Africa to flee the group stage of the World Cup. And whereas many gave suits to a few of the match favorites — hey, Cape Verde in opposition to Argentina — solely Morocco and Egypt had been in a position to attain the Spherical of 16.
“It’s at all times nice to get out of your group,” Opoku mentioned. “Clearly we wished to go additional.”
Colombia had breezed by the group stage, conceding solely a single objective in wins over Uzbekistan and Congo and a draw with Portugal. In reality, Los Cafeteros had been so spectacular that Spain coach Luis de la Fuente — whose personal workforce is taken into account among the many match favorites — tapped them as “a candidate to win the World Cup.”
Their followers actually consider in them.
The house of the NFL’s Chiefs has three ranges of seats with a band of yellow ones sandwiched between pink. But all the bowl of the stadium simply east of downtown Kansas Metropolis was awash within the vibrant yellow of Colombia some 2 hours earlier than kickoff.
Each match of the FIFA World Cup will air on both FOX or FOX Sports activities 1. If you happen to don’t have cable, you possibly can make the most of a DIRECTV free trial to stream all of it.
Want to take a look at the motion dwell and in individual? Store World Cup 2026 tickets on SeatGeek and ensure to make use of promo code NYPOST10 for $10 off purchases over $250 at checkout if you happen to’re a first-time SeatGeek consumer.
Ghana knew it will be an underdog. But the workforce that didn’t qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations final 12 months for the primary time in practically twenty years had already answered loads of critics by surviving a tough group topped by England and Croatia.
The query because it confronted Colombia: May Ghana mount sufficient offense?
As anticipated, Los Cafeteros dominated the ball — the Black Stars had possessed it simply 36.1% of the time within the group stage, second-least of any workforce that superior, and people offensive points continued in opposition to Colombia. Even when Ghana managed to place collectively an assault, Colombia was there to shortly counter with the pace of Suárez, Díaz and its midfielders.
Ghana wound up taking eight photographs in opposition to Colombia. None of them had been on objective.
“Intense sport. Robust sport for each groups, I suppose, as I anticipated,” Ghana coach Carlos Queiroz mentioned. “Colombia began the sport as we anticipated, full pace, numerous depth, passing. We tried to reply and cease them, however sadly the objective got here too early for us.”
