{"id":4949,"date":"2026-07-04T13:28:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T13:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=4949"},"modified":"2026-07-04T13:28:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T13:28:36","slug":"colombia-overcome-ghana-to-reach-world-cup-last-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=4949","title":{"rendered":"Colombia overcome Ghana to reach World Cup last 16"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wasteful Colombia saw off toothless Ghana 1-0 on Friday to become the final team to qualify for the World Cup last 16.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The South Americans dominated the game at Arrowhead Stadium and had eight shots on target but ended up with just Jhon Arias\u2019s early goal to show for their superiority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now they can look forward to a meeting with Switzerland in Vancouver on Tuesday and a chance to reach the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ghana midfielder Thomas Partey fizzed a shot just wide in the opening minute but that proved a false dawn for the African nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colombia were forced into an early change when Jhon Cordoba pulled up with an apparent groin injury and was replaced by Luis Suarez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minutes later Ghana were forced into a change of their own when Alidu Seidu came on for the stricken Marvin Senaya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colombia went ahead in the 14th minute after substitute Suarez showed persistence on the right flank and crossed for an unmarked Arias to steer home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That gave Carlos Queiroz\u2019s goal-shy Black Stars, who scored just twice in the group phase, a major headache.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colombia, roared on by a partisan crowd in Kansas City, continued to dominate, playing fluid, inventive football as they searched for a second goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bayern Munich forward Luis Diaz had a wonderful chance to double Colombia\u2019s lead in the 39th minute but scuffed his shot wide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early in first-half stoppage time Ghana goalkeeper Lawrence Ati Zigi produced a superb save from Johan Mojica\u2019s downward header.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The half-time numbers made grim reading for Ghana \u2014 not a single shot on target and less than half of Colombia\u2019s 319 completed passes \u2014 but they were still in the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colombia made hard work of the second period, squandering a number of opportunities to finish off their opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diaz put the ball in the net but was flagged offside before striking another shot straight at Zigi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As time ticked down, Juan Quintero flashed a powerful shot wide but one goal turned out to be enough against a side that failed to muster a single shot on target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diaz, named man of the match, said Colombia were improving game by game, though he admitted they needed to be sharper in front of goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just missing that little detail of finishing a bit better and staying composed,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we played a very solid game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winger, who scored 15 goals in the Bundesliga for Bayern last season, also admitted he had lacked composure in front of goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had chances to convert,\u201d he said. \u201cThat confidence I want to have isn\u2019t quite at 100 percent yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to improve game by game. I felt much better in today\u2019s match than in the previous one, without a doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wasteful Colombia saw off toothless Ghana 1-0 on Friday to become the final team to qualify for the World Cup last 16. The South Americans..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-04-182743-1.png",954,533,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-04-182743-1-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-04-182743-1-300x168.png",300,168,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-04-182743-1-768x429.png",768,429,true],"large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-04-182743-1.png",954,533,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-04-182743-1.png",954,533,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-04-182743-1.png",954,533,false]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Sports<\/a>","tag_info":"Sports","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4949"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4951,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4949\/revisions\/4951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}