Colombia, composed of James Rodriguez and Lucho Diaz, will meet Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal in the most exciting encounter in Group K of the 2026 World Cup in North America, which is completed by Uzbekistan, which is participating for the first time in the tournament, and the winning team in one of the playoff matches that will be held next year. The fourth team will come from the clashes between New Caledonia, Jamaica and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Although the coffee farmers were unable to avoid the Portuguese, one of the strongest teams in Europe, they had reasons to breathe a sigh of relief after the draw that brought them together with two teams. A priori Weaker.
The Tricolor returns to the World Cup finals after eight years of absence, with huge expectations. It qualified one day before the North American finals, overcoming promotions and relegations, as the third best team in CONMEBOL, behind Argentina and Ecuador, with the same points as Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay.
Coach Nestor Lorenzo does not hide his ambition about the good form of the World Cup for Colombia. “I always say, get to the last day. Step by step, play by play. “You have to start from the group area, see the logistics and treat every match as if it were a final to really get to the final day of the World Cup with potential,” he reiterated on the eve of a draw that on paper turned out to be in his favour. James, the soul of the team, who is preparing for his third World Cup at the age of 34, also openly stated that they intend to fight for the title. He added: “We want to win it, that’s what we all want because in 2024 we played a great final and that didn’t happen.” This week in reference to the Copa America tournament, in which they lost in the last breath to Argentina’s Messi.
The coffee farmers competed in marathon qualifying rounds in South America under the leadership of the incombustible James and with Lucho’s inexhaustible quirks as their best weapon. Until last year, Colombia remained in the top ten of the FIFA rankings and thus hoped to be at the top of the group at the World Cup in Mexico, the United States and Canada. But then he hit a slump that took him away from those prized spots and even caused some tension in his rankings. The team currently occupies 13th place in the standings, after its victory over Mexico (4-0), and a scoreless draw with Canada, and it also won over New Zealand (2-1) and Australia (3-0) in the last friendly windows.
As luck would have it, they made their debut against a powerful Portugal led by Cristiano, James’s idol since they played together at Real Madrid. The team, led by Roberto Martinez, who is ranked sixth in the FIFA rankings, won the 2025 Nations League, as well as the 2019 and 2016 European Cup, although it has never played in a World Cup final, and did not cross paths with Colombia in the tournament. Adding to the scoring power of the Al Nassr striker, now over 40 years old, are standout talents such as Bruno Fernandes, the Manchester United playmaker, or Vitinha, the tireless midfielder for Champions League champions Paris Saint-Germain.
Group K is completed by the national team of Uzbekistan, a newcomer who has achieved remarkable results in youth national teams in recent years. It occupies 50th place in the world rankings, and is led by Italian Fabio Cannavaro, captain of the 2006 World Cup champion Italy team. The last position corresponds to an intercontinental playoff between New Caledonia, Jamaica and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is the favorite to win the ticket and is currently ranked 56th in the FIFA rankings.
Beyond the ups and downs, there have been plenty of reasons to be excited on this long road. For the first time, Colombia beat Brazil in the qualifiers (2-1), with an emotional brace from Lucho, and also beat Argentina in Barranquilla and tied in Buenos Aires. Moreover, at the beginning of the era, Lorenzo won prestigious friendlies against Germany (0-2) and Spain (0-1), and earned himself an epic victory over Uruguay in the Copa America semi-final, with one man down for most of the match.
The most popular line-up includes veteran Camilo Vargas (Atlas) in goal, Daniel Muñoz (Crystal Palace) at right-back, Davinson Sanchez (Galatasaray) and John Lucumi (Bologna) at centre-back. The left side is still an area for experiments, although it is usually occupied by Johan Mujica (Mallorca). In the middle, Jefferson Lerma (Crystal Palace), Richard Reus (Benfica) and John Arias (Wolverhampton) are usually responsible for supporting James, the number ten and leader, responsible for filtering his passes to Lucho, the Bayern Munich star, and the team’s striker, a position that John Cordoba (Krasnodar) and Luis Suarez (Sporting of Portugal) are still competing for. Among the substitutes, Juan Fernando Quintero (River Plate) and ten others stand out with a velvety left foot.