Overview
After an impressive opening match with a 3-1 victory over Uzbekistan, Colombia will aim to maintain a winning streak when facing the DRC in the second match of Group K of the 2026 World Cup.
This is the first time the two teams have met in history, but Colombia entered the match with great confidence thanks to their impressive achievements at recent World Cups.
Los Cafeteros have won 6 of their last 7 group stage matches at the World Cup, losing only to Japan with a score of 1-2 at the 2018 tournament. In this series of matches, the South American representative scored 17 goals and conceded only 5 times.
Under the guidance of coach Nestor Lorenzo, Colombia continues to maintain the image of a highly attacking team. This team has scored in 10 consecutive World Cup matches, the longest streak of the tournament, equal to Argentina.
If they win against the DRC, Colombia will officially win a ticket to the knockout round for the third consecutive time, after the 2014 and 2018 World Cups.
However, the DRC is certainly not an easy opponent to underestimate. After 52 years of waiting to return to the World Cup arena, the African representative created one of the biggest surprises from the beginning of the tournament when they drew 1-1 with Portugal.
Yoane Wissa is the person who scored the historic goal, helping the DRC get the first point as well as the first goal in the history of participating in the World Cup.
This achievement becomes even more meaningful if we look back at their only previous World Cup appearance under the name Zaire in 1974, when the African team lost all 3 group stage matches with a total score of 0-14.
Although only controlling the ball 24.6% against Portugal, the lowest among the teams in the first match, DRC still made it very difficult for the opponent.
Sebastien Desabre's team only let Portugal take 7 shots, and showed surprising proactiveness when up to 75% of the shots were taken from outside the penalty area.
However, attacking efficiency is still something that the DRC needs to improve when only 2 out of 8 of their shots hit the target. This challenge is even greater when the opponent is a Colombia with many quality attacking stars.
Luis Diaz continues to be the number one hope of the South American representative. The Bayern Munich star has scored 1 goal, assisted 1 time against Uzbekistan and is the most outstanding player on the field with a series of impressive statistics on dribbling, tackles and the number of touches in the opponent's penalty area.
On the other side, the DRC will continue to place expectations on Yoane Wissa. If he continues to score at Guadalajara, the Newcastle United striker will become the second African player in history to score in both of his first matches at the World Cup, after Mohamed Salah of Egypt in 2018.
Head-to-head record
The match in Guadalajara will be the first time Colombia and DRC have faced each other in history.
This is also only the second time the DRC has faced a South American representative (CONMEBOL), after a 1-2 defeat to Chile in a friendly match held right before the 2026 World Cup.
Score prediction: Colombia 2-0 DRC
The match between Colombia and the DRC will take place at 9:00 AM on June 24 (Vietnam time).
