Colombia arrived at the FIFA World Cup 2026 with dreams of redemption after missing out on qualifying in the tournament held in Qatar in 2022. Although it was tense at times, the Cafeteros got off to a strong start. Luis Díaz had a goal and an assist in his debut on soccer’s biggest stage, sparking Colombia to a 3-1 win over Uzbekistan on Wednesday night. Uzbekistan, incidentally, put up a solid performance despite the loss, in their first-ever game on the FIFA World Cup stage.
“That’s what we came here to do. It’s very important to win this first game. We controlled the first half, but they played better in the second,” said Díaz, who plays for Bayern Munich. “We must improve.”
Daniel Muñoz, also playing in his first World Cup, opened the scoring in the 40th minute after a pass from Díaz, who scored the tiebreaking goal in the 65th when his strike from close range deflected off the hands of diving goalkeeper Utkir Yusupov and trickled across the line.
“We knew that it was going to be a tough match,” Colombia coach Nestor Lorenzo said.
Fayzullaev Abbosbek scored in the 60th minute for Uzbekistan, which made its World Cup debut in front of a heavily pro-Colombia crowd of 80,824 at Estadio Azteca.
“It is a wonderful joy, but emotionally, I think it weighed on some of the players who suffered physically,” Lorenzo said. “It has to do with the emotional burden generated by the opening match and the setting in which we played — especially since we were expected to take the initiative and were under pressure to win.”
With the White Wolves’ defeat, three of the four debuting teams at this year’s World Cup lost their first match. Cape Verde played Spain to a draw, while Curaçao and Jordan lost.
“For a small team like ours, to lose 3-1 is too much,” said Uzbekistan coach Fabio Cannavaro, an Italian who took over the team in October 2025. “We have good quality for an Asian team, but we need to grow. It was a good experience.”
Jaminton Campaz added a goal in second-half stoppage time for the Colombians, who are ranked 13th in the world and were heavy favorites over 50th-ranked Uzbekistan. Colombia’s best World Cup finish was a run to the quarterfinals in Brazil in 2014.
“We needed to hit the ground running. Now we can enjoy the rest of the night,” midfielder Gustavo Puerta said.
Colombia moved atop Group K, ahead of Portugal and Congo, who played to a surprising 1-1 draw earlier Wednesday.
The Colombians will face Congo next Thursday at Guadalajara, Mexico, while Uzbekistan will take on Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal at Houston.
“We are going to play against a tough team that played great against one of the best teams in the world. It is going to be hard,” Lorenzo said.
Colombia finished third in South American qualifying behind Argentina and Ecuador. Uzbekistan was second in its Asian qualifying group behind Iran.
Ghana Edge Past Panama With Last Minute Goal
Caleb Yirenkyi tapped in a cross from Brandon Thomas-Asante in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time, and Ghana beat Panama 1–0 on the teams’ FIFA World Cup 2026 opener.
Thomas-Asante got loose on the left side and fired the ball across the goal mouth. Yirenkyi knocked it in, sending his teammates streaming onto the field to embrace both players.
“Get the ball to the wings, and then put it in the box, and we get runs — people in the box to finish,” said the 20-year-old Yirenkyi, who scored his first international goal earlier this month in a friendly against Wales. “I tried (to) just play forward and run forward, and then hope to see what comes in, and yeah, I got the ball in the box and finished.”
Ghana played without midfielder Thomas Partey, who was denied entry into Canada while he awaits trial on rape charges in England.
The late goal denied Panama its first World Cup point.
The only shot on goal in the first half came two minutes in, when Panama forward Cecilio Waterman latched onto a low cross from Amir Murillo and clipped a ball from the center of the box toward the net. Lawrence Ati-Zigi dove to his right and palmed the ball away.
The goalkeeper left the game at halftime after a couple of hard collisions. He was replaced by Benjamin Asare. Ghana coach Carlos Queiroz said Ati-Zigi would be evaluated further on Thursday.
The result puts Ghana at the top of Group L with England, which beat Croatia 4-2 earlier in the day.
After the first hour, when chances came at a premium at rainy BMO Field, the match opened up and both teams started smashing shots towards the net.
In the 65th minute, Thomas-Asante broke through Panama’s back line and played a ball along the 6-yard box toward Jordan Ayew, but Jiovany Ramos ran up from behind with a tackle to prevent the tap-in.
“Panama, they had a great first half. They kept the ball really well and we struggled with the press,” said Antoine Semenyo, who started the scoring play with a pass to Thomas-Asante. But “slowly into the second half we had that energy to go up and press and cause problems, and that led to the winner.”
INPUTS FROM AP
