EGYPT 1 | 1 AUSTRALIA | pENALTY : 4-2
Kansas City, July 4: Jhon Arias scored off a sharp cross from Luis Suarez in the opening minutes, and Colombia controlled Ghana on a sweltering night at Arrowhead Stadium, allowing Los Cafeteros to advance to the Round of 16 at the World Cup with a 1-0 victory.
Colombia will play Switzerland on Tuesday in Vancouver, British Columbia, for a spot in the quarterfinals.
The game Friday night was just minutes old when Colombia forward Jhon Cordoba appeared to hurt his groin, forcing coach Nestor Lorenzo to bring Suarez – the standout from Sporting CP, not the Inter Miami star of the same name – off the bench as an early substitute.
He factored into the game immediately: In the 14th minute, Daniel Munoz played a ball to Suarez, 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 they had doubled their lead in the 56th minute, when Luis Diaz found the back of the net only to see the offside flag raised, and the fleet-footed Colombia forward had a point-blank shot saved by Zigi a few minutes later.Zigi wound up making seven saves to keep Ghana in the game.It was 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31.1 Celsius) with a heat index of 96 when the game kicked off at 8:30 p.m. local time, the late start intentional due to the expected heat of Midwestern summers. (AP)
