WORLD CUP BETTING PREVIEW - COLOMBIA VS GHANA

World Cup

2026-07-03 - Colombia vs Ghana

A Sports Betting Preview by Auls

Colombia v Ghana
Football: World Cup Last 32
Friday 3rd June 2026 - Kick Off 8:30pm (CST)
British Time 2:30am

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Colombia

The last time the United States hosted the World Cup, tragedy engulfed Colombian Football after the national team failed to live up to the expectations of being dark horses. An early Group Stage exit was a big disappointment on the pitch, but the tragic fate of Andres Escobar shocked the world and it is something that still casts a shadow over the run of the national team in 2026.

The squad are hoping to create memories that will be looked back with much more happiness than those from 1994 and there is a real belief that this Colombia team are capable of matching the best ever run of reaching the Quarter Final as they did in Brazil in 2014. Topping a Group containing Portugal will only increase that belief, while Colombia picked up 7 points in the section and conceded a single goal.

Colombia's opening wins over Uzbekistan and DR Congo meant they had won 4 in a row since losing friendly matches against Croatia and France, but the draw with Portugal snapped the recent streak. Finishing third in the South American Qualifying Group underlines Colombia's potential, while they were Finalists at the Copa America hosted by the United States two years ago.

The first eleven had been freshened up a little bit in the draw with Portugal to round out the Group Stage, but key players should be restored from the outset of this one.

Predicted Line Up: Vargas, Munoz, Mojica, Sanchez, Lucumi, Lerma, Arias, Puerta, Rodriguez, Diaz and Suarez (4-3-3)

Ghana

Picking up four points after two Group games always looked to be setting Ghana up for a place in the Last 32 of the World Cup and that is already going to be feel like an overachievement. The national team had been out of sorts since Qualifying for the 2026 World Cup and a late change in manager meant there had been little time for the players to work under Carlos Queiroz and understand the methods of the experienced coach.

However, the team have rallied behind Queiroz pretty quickly and back to back clean sheets against Panama and England set Ghana on their way. They did concede very late on in the 2-1 defeat to Croatia, but that may not have been the worst situation in the world and not after Colombia topped Group K ahead of Portugal.

Ghana's 2-1 defeat to Croatia meant finishing as one of the best third place teams and that has meant facing Colombia and then the winner of Switzerland versus Algeria rather than Portugal and the winner of the Spain versus Austria match. This final part of the Knock Out Bracket does look more manageable, but Ghana cannot think to overlook this opponent and especially not after winning 1 of the last 9 games in all competitions.

Carlos Queiroz may have known his team were virtually through after two games, but he still selected a strong team against Croatia to maintain some momentum.

Predicted Line Up: Asare, Senaya, Mensah, Adjetey, Opoku, Partey, Sibo, Yirenkyi, Williams, Semenyo and Ayew (4-1-4-1)

Head to Head

This is the first competitive meeting between these nations.

Prediction

The Last 32 of the World Cup Knock Out comes to a conclusion on Friday and this could be a decent watch when Colombia take on Ghana.

Both teams have impressed in different ways to get through the Group Stage, but it is no surprise that Colombia are the favourites having topped their section ahead of Portugal, DR Congo and Uzbekistan.

That has meant being rewarded by facing one of the teams that finished third in the Group, which Ghana did behind England and Croatia, but Carlos Queiroz' men did more than enough to impress to suggest they should not be taken lightly.

Antoine Semenyo gives Ghana genuine quality in the final third, while the experience of Carlos Queiroz has meant Ghana have been set up to frustrate. Even in the 2-1 loss to Croatia, Ghana will feel they played well enough to avoid a defeat.

Colombia have already faced one African nation when narrowly beating DR Congo in the Group Stage and so there will be a healthy respect for the Ghana team they are facing.

The front three look very good and Colombia do have threats from the likes of Daniel Munoz making late runs, but there still feels like more to come from the South American nation. They have posed a threat in games throughout, but the composure in the final third has to be improved if they are going to have the kind of run hoped.

In reality Colombia should win with the expectation being that they will have control of the ball and should dominate the shot count. The likes of Luis Diaz, James Rodriguez and Luis Suarez should eventually find the quality needed in the final third to win the game, but Ghana will look to make things difficult and hope they can spring out on the counter much more effectively than DR Congo were able to do against this opponent.

Colombia will be looking to test the goalkeeper as much as they can and this is a team that is not afraid to take shots- while Ghana contained England, both Panama and Croatia managed 4 shots on target and this Colombia team had had 15 shots on target in the last two Group matches. The favourite should be the dominant team and backing Colombia to have at least 6 shots on target in this one looks a big price in a game where they are plenty short to win in normal time.

The Pick :

Colombia 2-1 Ghana

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

I'll back Colombia Over 5.5 Shots on Target at 2.20 with Bet365