Colombia Secures 2026 World Cup Round of 16 Spot with 1-0 Win Over Ghana

Kansas City (United States) – Colombia became the last team to advance to the round of 16 at the 2026 World Cup by earning a deserved 1-0 victory over Ghana on Friday in Kansas City, concluding the round of 32.

Jon Arias, a midfielder for Palmeiras in Brazil, scored the only goal of the match in the 14th minute.

Colombia is scheduled to face Switzerland in the round of 16 on Tuesday; Switzerland secured their spot by beating Algeria 2-0 on Thursday.

This marks the fourth time Colombia has reached the round of 16, previously achieving this in 1990, 2018—when they were eliminated at this stage—and 2014, when they advanced to the quarterfinals. Ghana failed to reach the round of 16 for the third time after 2006 and 2010, the latter year they reached the quarterfinals but lost to Uruguay.

Colombia settled the match early against their former coach, Portuguese Carlos Queiroz, with Arias’s goal and maintained the lead until the end. Despite multiple opportunities to secure the win, especially from their forward Luis Díaz of Bayern Munich, who missed more than three chances, Ghana created very few scoring chances.

Díaz, who was named the best player of the match, stated that Colombia is improving game by game but acknowledged the team needs to be more clinical in front of goal.

He said, "We are only missing those small details of finishing attacks better and keeping our composure. I think we played a very strong match."

The winger, who scored 15 goals in the German league last season with Bayern Munich, admitted he lacked calmness in front of goal. "I had chances to score. The confidence I am aiming for is not yet at 100 percent," he added.

He continued, "I am trying to improve match after match. I felt much better in today’s game compared to the previous one, without a doubt."

Decisive Goal

Colombia’s Argentine coach Néstor Lorenzo made two changes to the lineup that drew 0-0 with Portugal in the last round, bringing in Daniel Muñoz and Johan Mojica to replace Santiago Arias and Deiber Machado.

Queiroz made four substitutions for Ghana, including replacing goalkeeper Lawrence Ati-Zigi with Benjamin Asare.

Ghana started the match threatening through midfielder Thomas Partey, but Colombia’s goalkeeper Camilo Vargas stopped his attempt in the fourth minute.

Colombia was forced into an early substitution after forward John Córdoba of Krasnodar suffered a left adductor muscle injury and was replaced by Sporting’s Luis Suárez in the eighth minute.

Similarly, Ghana replaced Marvin Sinaya with Christopher Baffoe due to injury in the 13th minute.

Colombia opened the scoring on their first serious attacking chance when Arias followed up on a cross from substitute Suárez on the right side, placing the ball to the right of goalkeeper Ati-Zigi in the 14th minute.

Suárez fired a shot from outside the box into Ati-Zigi’s hands in the 20th minute, then missed a second chance when he received the ball inside the area and shot powerfully just wide of the right post in the 40th minute.

Goalkeeper Ati-Zigi denied defender Mojica a second goal by clearing his header off the goal line after a cross from Daniel Muñoz in first-half stoppage time (45+1).

The Ghanaian keeper continued his strong performance by blocking a powerful shot from Díaz that resulted in a corner kick in the 55th minute. Díaz then scored a goal that was disallowed for offside in the same minute, before missing an easy chance from close range that the goalkeeper saved in the 58th minute.

Partey shot from outside the box just past the right post in the 69th minute.

Davinson Sánchez nearly extended Colombia’s lead with a close-range header from a corner, but Ati-Zigi saved the ball after two attempts in the 81st minute.

Substitute Juan Quintero struck a powerful shot just wide of the left post in the 84th minute.

In the final moments of added time, the Ghanaian goalkeeper made two crucial saves, stopping strong shots from Richard Ríos, who replaced captain James Rodríguez, and from Jhamintus Cambas, who came on for Luis Suárez.