Overview
Colombia and Ghana both aim for their second victory in history in the World Cup knockout round when facing each other in the round of 32 at the Kansas City stadium.
The two teams have once reached the World Cup quarter-finals and only need two more victories to repeat that memorable achievement in North America.
It has been 12 years since the 2014 World Cup, where Colombia made a mark when they reached the quarter-finals. At that time, James Rodriguez was the brightest star with 6 goals to win the Golden Shoe title.
2 out of 4 goals Colombia scored at the 2026 World Cup came from a rather surprising name, defender Daniel Munoz. Including a decisive goal against the DRC that helped the team win a ticket to the knockout round one match early. Before Munoz, only James Rodriguez (6 goals in 2014) and Yerry Mina (3 goals in 2018) scored more goals for Colombia in a World Cup.
In the opposite direction, Colombia also showed certainty in their defense when they only conceded 2 goals in the last 6 World Cup matches. The draw with Portugal also marked the fourth time they kept a clean sheet in this series of matches. If they continue not to concede against Ghana, Colombia will for the first time have 3 consecutive clean sheets at the World Cup.
Their opponent is Ghana, a team led by a very familiar face to Colombia - coach Carlos Queiroz. The Portuguese strategist used to coach Los Cafeteros in the 2019-2020 period before saying goodbye after an unsuccessful start in the 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign.
Only appointed to replace Otto Addo right before the tournament, Queiroz still managed to make his mark at the World Cup. He became the second coach in history to participate in five consecutive World Cups, after Bora Milutinovic. The victory over Panama also helped him become the oldest coach to win a World Cup match at the age of 73 years and 108 days, before this record was broken by Hugo Broos of South Africa (74 years and 75 days).
More importantly, Queiroz brought Ghana to the knockout stage for the third time after five World Cup appearances, when the team finished the group stage in third place in Group L.
Ghana's success is built on a foundation of disciplined defense, typically the 0-0 draw against England in the group stage. In the group stage, Ghana only controlled the ball on average 36.1%, the second lowest among the teams qualifying for the knockout round, only above Paraguay (33.9%).
However, Queiroz understands that his team needs to improve attacking efficiency if they want to recreate the feat of reaching the quarter-finals like the 2010 generation.
Ghana has only scored 2 goals and is still waiting for Antoine Semenyo to explode. The Manchester City striker has not had a shot on target at the 2026 World Cup, with three shots creating only a total expected goal index (xG) of 0.13.
Head-to-head record
The confrontation at Kansas City will mark the first time Colombia and Ghana have faced each other at the national team level.
Colombia is owning a very impressive record against African representatives at the World Cup when winning all four recent encounters, including a 1-0 victory over the DRC in the group stage of the 2026 World Cup. Notably, all four victories of Los Cafeteros against African teams only had a one-goal difference.
However, the only time Colombia met an African representative in the knockout round ended in defeat. In the round of 16 of the 1990 World Cup, they lost to Cameroon 1-2 in extra time.
Score prediction: Colombia 2-1 Ghana
The match between Colombia and Ghana takes place at 8:30 am on July 4 (Vietnam time).
