Colombia v Portugal: World Cup 2026 - live

Key events

45 min +3 James unleashes a 20-yard left-footer, and Costa has to dive to punch away.

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45 min +2 Ronaldo tries a low-percentage shot of his own, and it’s blocked. Foul on Portugal as Colombia break, but the referee makes a good advantage call. (Love when that happens.)

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45 min +1 Not sure why Luis Díaz would take that shot from outside the box at an angle. Misses the near post by some distance. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, but you also miss 100% of those.

Colombia bring it back, but the final pass is lacking.

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Three minutes of stoppage time. Thanks, hydration break.

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45 min Free kick for Portugal at midfield, and they’ll tap it short. Possession is brief, but Cancelo wins it back. Then he loses it. Jhon Arias has it and drops it back to Puerta, who shoots from 20 but straight at the keeper.

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44 min Veiga blocks a 20-yard right-footed shot from James as Colombia combine well.

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42 min Another big chance for Portugal! Hey, it’s a long throw-in! João Felix chests it down, but the touch is a bit too far, and his effort to stretch for the shot sends the ball over the bar.

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39 min POINT-BLANK SAVE BY VARGAS as a Colombian defender slips and Fernandes has the ball 8 yards out. He blasts it on goal, but Vargas gets his arms up to stop it. Ronaldo tries a bicycle kick on the rebound but can’t connect. Neves ends up taking a long-range shot that deflects, but the deflection went unseen by the men in black.

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Updated at 20.17 EDT

38 min End to end now, as Portugal cause some discomfort in the Colombian defense. Shot from outside the box is dragged wide of the far post.

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38 min Two Colombia players in position for a cross, but they’re right next to each and not where the cross went.

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36 min The international feed shows us bouncing Colombian fans while the ball is in play. They’re back in time to see Córdoba knocked down to get a free kick for Colombia. Two balls end up on the field, and they pick one to kick.

Jhon Arias breaks through and has just a split-second to shoot, and it’s easily caught.

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35 min VAR apparently checked to see if Colombia should have a penalty kick. They should not.

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34 min Arias crosses, though I think he was offside.

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33 min This is interesting. Back and forth passes between two Portuguese players until the one without the ball ends up sprawled on the grass. Not sure if a foul was there.

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32 min Portugal play forward to Ronaldo, who is so far offside that the AR eventually concedes that he simply has to raise the flag.

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Updated at 20.05 EDT

31 min Corner to Colombia, and Portugal are furious. James lines up to take it. This could be a dangerous …

… never mind, VAR hath intervened.

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29 min We’re back, and Colombia are possessing. Portugal’s defense seem to have adjusted a bit, though, and the passing lanes just aren’t there.

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Ah, right – long throw-ins.

I attended a session at the national soccer coaches convention, a massive to-do in the USA, and a pedantic college coach from a school I won’t name (because I’m not 100% sure I remember it) showed videos from his team’s games as part of a “We Really Have To Stress Development Over Winning And We’re Not Kidding This Time” session. He sniffed that the other team was using long throw-ins. He said he would never do that because he was preparing his players for the next level.

A couple of days later, I saw a Premier League score off a long throw-in.

I guess he was preparing ACC players for a higher level than Arsenal?

We’ve seen a lot of long throw-ins at this Cup, even though the stadiums used here are nice and wide, in contrast to some of the fields in the 1994 edition.

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Hydrate! OK, what was the story I was going to tell?

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24 min Free kick to Portugal, 28 yards out dead center, and Ronaldo bangs it past the wall but not past Vargas.

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Fotmob gives that Arias shot an 0.05 xG. Yeah, OK. The keeper might disagree. Neves, who also plays in Saudi Arabia, was on the line to clear. It might have been post-bound.

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22 min CLEARED OFF THE LINE – my goodness, Colombia have gone close a few times now.

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Updated at 19.59 EDT

20 min Gotta love nifty backheels. I believe that was João Félix of Saudi club Al-Nassr, contributing to the Portuguese buildup.

That buildup continues until Camilo Vargas, the Colombian keeper who plays for Atlas, rushes out to collect.

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19 min: Our referee has come over to Colombia’s bench to address some sort of issue. Now play resumes, and Colombia won’t be happy to see Jhon Arias hit the turf without a call.

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Breaking news: With Scotland out of the World Cup, manager Steve Clarke has resigned.

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17 min CHANCES FOR COLOMBIA. A good run down the middle, a pass over to Córdoba, who pulls away from a defender and shoots from 15 yards. The rebound goes to Díaz, and his shot is blocked out for a corner.

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16 min Neto finally launches a diagonal cross, and Santiago Arias has to be alert to play it partially clear.

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16 min But Portugal also have plenty of time to knock the ball around, undeterred by the incessant whistles from the crowd like a 1970s Bundesliga match. (Shoutout to the great show Soccer Made in Germany.)

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14 min Portuguese supporters would surely say Colombia are far too comfortable on the ball around the periphery of the Portuguese penalty area. Roberto Martinez on the Portuguese bench would probably agree.

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13 min Portugal possess and shoot, but we’re interrupted by chimes that indicate Uzbekistan have scored. Please do follow that one with Bryan Armen Graham.

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I’m adding a photo of Colombian legend Carlos Valderrama. I’d say he’s one of my favorite players, but if he’s not one of yours as well, you’re too young to have seen him play. The guy could shuffle his feet and send a 40-yard pass that lands on a pinpoint.

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10 min Sublime control from Nuno Mendes on a long pass, but Colombia defender Santiago Arias stands his ground and forces the ball out.

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9 min Portugal passing around on the right oops they’ve knocked it out. Goal kick.

The world feed has given us our obligatory Infantino sighting.

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8 min Long pass is too high for Neto. Colombia will bang the ball the other way. Rodríguez shoots low and wide of the far post.

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7 min Colombia waited too long to take a throw-in. Throw-in for Portugal. This is not a rule I will be enforcing with 9-year-old rec players this fall.

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6 min Long throw for Colombia – goes all the way into the goalmouth. I have a story to tell about that, maybe during the 180 Seconds of Hydration.

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Updated at 19.42 EDT

5 min The free kick was not a thing of beauty.

George Meikle writes: “What a great match! One side likes to stuff the box and kick you, vs. another team that likes to pull your kit and kick you. The Unvwilling vs. the Undead.”

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4 min Portugal build patiently while fans whistle.

Silly foul from Jhon Arias, and Portugal have a free kick near the sideline. Everyone lines up at the top of the box, like the fifth group at the airport departure gate when they’ve just called Group 2.

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3 min Current conditions in Miami: 87 degrees, 70% humidity, about 80% yellow shirts in the stands.

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1 min Colombia chance! Direct play to Díaz, the Portuguese defense don’t cope well, Díaz’s shot bounces off a leg, and Córdoba has a header that goes just high.

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Updated at 19.39 EDT

Peep! We’re off. Colombia in their typical yellow; Portugal in red. Nice change of pace from all the third jerseys we’ve been seeing here.

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The teams observe a moment of silence for the 1,400 dead in the earthquake in Venezuela. Fans do not. Come on, folks. We don’t even do a full minute in the USA. You can be quiet for about 15 seconds.

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Officials

Ref is Alireza Faghani of Australia, and he has two Australians with him.

Faghani, born in Iran, had a controversial call in the France-Senegal game – at least as some in England tell it.

VAR is Jerome Brisard of France.

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Kudos to whoever at Wikipedia took the time to list all 495 possible permutations of third-place qualifiers at the World Cup and has kept track as that list has been narrowed to four.

Here’s what at stake in this group:

Current standings

6 Colombia

4 Portugal

1 DR Congo

0 Uzbekistan

First place in the group will face Ghana. Winner faces Switzerland or, if I’ve done it right, one out of Iran, Algeria and Austria.

Second place in the group will face Croatia. Winner gets Spain and either … let’s just say Spain.

If Portugal were to finish third (an unlikely swing in goal difference with a big loss to Colombia and a big DR Congo win over Uzbekistan), they would get England. Yikes.

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Here’s a list of Colombia and Portugal’s previous head-to-head matchups …

…

…

Never? Seriously? OK then.

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The previous group’s games have now finished. We have 30 minutes until the scheduled kickoff here, and the most important matter of business at this point is simple: With Scotland out, can any other team borrow their supporters?

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Did you hear two other games are in progress? Take a look.

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Starters and players to watch

Starters

Colombia: Vargas; Machado, Lucumí, Sánchez, S. Arias; J. Arias, Lerma, Puerta; Díaz, Córdoba, Rodríguez

Portugal: Costa; Mendes, Veiga, Dias, Cancelo; Vitinha, R. Neves; Félix, Fernandes, Neto; Ronaldo

Colombia make three changes from the lineup that started the first two games. Cordoba joins the front line in place of Suarez. Both fullbacks have changed – Machado for Mojica, S. Arias for Muñoz. Mojica and Munoz had started both games, but Mojica is on a yellow card.

For Portugal, Ruben Neves replaces João Neves, who started against Uzbekistan. They are not related.

Players to watch

Colombia

Crystal Palace defender Daniel Muñoz is the only player on the team with two goals. He and fellow Palace player Jefferson Lerma have played all 180 minutes so far, but Muñoz will be on the bench at the outset here.

James Rodríguez may no longer be at the same level as he was in 2014, when he won the Golden Boot and moved on to Real Madrid, but the Minnesota United player is more than holding his own at age 34.

Bayern Munich’s Luis Díaz scored a vital goal in the win over Uzbekistan.

Portugal

We’ve covered that Ronaldo guy.

Goalkeeper Diogo Costa stopped three straight penalties in a shootout in Euro 2024.

Rúben Dias has been a steady force at the back, but fellow Manchester City defender Matheus Nunes has been dealing with lingering injury concerns.

Midfielder Bruno Fernandes is the team’s creative engine and has been fiercely loyal to Ronaldo and to Manchester United.

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Preamble

Let’s begin with the tangible stakes ...

If Portugal win this game, they win Group K, and Colombia will be second, resulting in these matchups:

Portugal: July 3 in Kansas City vs. the third-place team in Group L, if that team qualifies. Should the Group L team fall short, they’ll face the third-place team in Group I, which is Senegal.

Colombia: July 2 in Toronto vs. the runner-up in Group L (England, Ghana or Croatia).

If these teams draw, Colombia will win Group K, and Portugal will be second, so reverse the previous options.

If Colombia win, they win Group K, and Portugal will be second unless DR Congo make up a six-goal gap in goal difference. If that happens, Portugal would be third and would face the Group L winner (England, Ghana or Croatia).

Now let’s talk about the intangible stakes ...

Cristiano Ronaldo has had a pretty good career. He’s good enough that kids in the schools where I work, upon finding that I follow this sport, ask me, “Messi or Ronaldo?” The case for Ronaldo has dwindled, but the mere fact that the question is asked is proof that his marketing team have successfully reached fifth-graders. (Or that he is, indeed, a halfway decent player.) He has won eight domestic championships (three in a row with Manchester United, two with Real Madrid, two with Juventus, one with Al-Nassr) and five UEFA Champions League trophies (one with Manchester United, the rest with Real Madrid).

With the national team, he has been the bridge from one Golden Generation to another. The first such generation lost to the Flying McBrides (USA) and lost composure against South Korea in 2002. Ronaldo emerged onto the team after that and help the team reach the Euro 2004 final and the 2006 World Cup semifinals. Portugal went on to more success in the Euros, winning in 2016, and the UEFA Nations League, winning in 2019 and 2025, but further World Cup success has been elusive.

So when Portugal opened this tournament with a draw against DR Congo, Portuguese nerves were certainly frayed. But Ronaldo scored twice in a rout over Uzbekistan, and all seems well ... for now?

But this Colombian side will not be an easy out. No team with James Rodríguez and Luis Díaz could be. And it’s worth noting that they beat Uzbekistan.

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Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s how Ronaldo is getting on (pretty well):

Cristiano Ronaldo savoured the end of a “difficult, dark week” after scoring twice in Portugal’s 5-0 rout of Uzbekistan and becoming the first player to find the net in six World Cups.

Ronaldo and Portugal had come under heavy criticism after a flat draw against Democratic Republic of the Congo. There had been a particular spotlight on the 41-year-old Ronaldo, who had not scored in 10 major tournament games before Tuesday’s fixture. There have long been question marks over his continued ability to lead Portugal on this stage, but after the final whistle he shouted into a television camera: “I’m back, I’m back.”

“God helps those who work hard,” Ronaldo said later. “It was a difficult, dark week; it felt like I’d already retired from football. But I held on as I always do because I believe more in hard work than in football. It was difficult, I have to admit, but we’re back.

“It’s fine because when you think about it, it’s already 23 years I’ve been a professional and whenever things don’t go well it’s: ‘Cristiano, he’s finished, he’s old.’ But well, it was a good response from me and my teammates, which is what we wanted.”

You can read the full article below:

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