Colombia advanced to the last 16 of the FIFA World Cup (WC) thanks to a 1-0 win over Ghana in Kansas City, stretching their unbeaten run in competitive action to nine matches with a fifth successive victory against African opposition at the finals.
Neither side enjoyed an ideal start to this first-ever H2H, with both forced into early changes as Colombia’s Jhon Córdoba and Ghana’s Marvin Senaya went off injured inside 13 minutes. There were immediate ramifications to those early changes, with Los Cafeteros substitute Luis Suárez crossing from the right to the back post where Jhon Arias arrived completely unmarked to sweep home the opener.
Much of Ghana’s recent success has come from a solid backline which kept five successive competitive clean sheets prior to their matchday three defeat against Croatia. Falling behind early was therefore far from an ideal situation, and failing to register a single shot on target prior to HT epitomised the Black Stars’ struggles. Their deficit could’ve increased before the break, but Luis Díaz fired wide after the ball bounced fortuitously into his path while returning goalkeeper Lawrence Ati-Zigi made a stunning stop to deny Johan Mojica’s header.
Six of Colombia’s previous seven matches saw the HT result replicated at FT, so a mammoth task awaited Ghana after the restart. Their lack of quality up front was continuously a problem, and Colombia continued to threaten to put the game beyond them. Gustavo Puerta’s curling strike was kept out by Ati-Zigi, before Díaz thought he’d doubled their lead before being denied by the offside flag. The Bayern Munich winger’s luckless evening continued when he was thwarted by Ati-Zigi after being found by Puerta in a promising position.
Colombia’s attacking output reduced as the contest went on, and while Ghana probed for long periods, they simply could not find a way through Los Cafeteros’ backline. As a result, Colombia reached the last 16 for a fourth successive WC appearance, while Ghana bow out after suffering a fourth defeat in as many meetings against South American opponents at the finals.
