Jhon Arias #11 of Colombia celebrates scoring his team’s first goal throughout the FIFA World Cup 2026 Round of 32 match between Colombia and Ghana at Kansas City Stadium on July 03, 2026 in Kansas City, Missouri. Carl Recine/Getty Images/AFP
KANSAS CITY, Missouri— Jhon Arias scored off a pointy cross from Luis Suárez within the opening minutes, and Colombia controlled Ghana on a sweltering night at Arrowhead Stadium, allowing Los Cafeteros to advance to the Round of 16 on the World Cup with a 1-0 victory Friday night.
Colombia will play Switzerland on Tuesday in Vancouver, British Columbia, for a spot within the quarterfinals.
READ: World Cup: Luis Díaz sparks Colombia to 3-1 win over Uzbekistan
The sport was just minutes old when Colombia forward Jhon Córdoba appeared to harm his groin, forcing coach Néstor Lorenzo to bring Suárez — the standout from Sporting CP, not the Inter Miami star of the identical name — off the bench as an early substitute.
He factored into the sport immediately: Within the 14th minute, Daniel Muñoz played a ball to Suárez, who sent it across the front of the goal, where Arias was waiting to flick it past Ghana goalkeeper Lawrence Ati Zigi for a 1-0 lead.
Los Cafeteros thought that they had doubled their lead within the 56th minute, when Luis Díaz found the back of the online only to see the offside flag raised, and the fleet-footed Colombia forward had a point-blank shot saved by Zigi a couple of minutes later.
READ: World Cup: Colombia wins Group K after 0-0 draw with Portugal
Zigi wound up making seven saves to maintain Ghana in the sport.
It was 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31.1 Celsius) with a heat index of 96 when the sport kicked off at 8:30 p.m. local time, the late start intentional because of the expected heat of Midwestern summers. The hydration breaks which were controversial in so many matches suddenly became a blessing as players from either side fought through dehydration and cramps.
Colombia had breezed through the group stage, conceding only a single goal in wins over Uzbekistan and Congo and a draw with Portugal. Los Cafeteros had been so impressive that Spain coach Luis de la Fuente — whose own team is taken into account among the many tournament favorites — tapped them as “a candidate to win the World Cup.”
Their fans actually imagine in them.
The house of the NFL’s Chiefs has three levels of seats with a band of yellow ones sandwiched between red. Yet your entire bowl of the stadium just east of downtown Kansas City was awash in the colourful yellow of Colombia some 2 hours before kickoff.
Ghana knew it could be an underdog. Yet the team that didn’t qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations last 12 months for the primary time in nearly twenty years had already answered loads of critics by surviving a difficult group topped by England and Croatia.
The query because it faced Colombia: Could Ghana mount enough offense?
As expected, Los Cafeteros dominated the ball — the Black Stars had possessed it just 36.1% of the time within the group stage, second-least of any team that advanced, and people offensive issues continued against Colombia. Even when Ghana managed to place together an attack, Colombia was there to quickly counter with the speed of Suárez, Díaz and its midfielders.
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Ghana wound up taking eight shots. None of them were on goal.