Diaz leads Colombia to 3-1 win over World Cup debutants Uzbekistan

Inja News ژوئن 18, 2026 2 minutes read

With one goal and one assist, Luis Diaz led Colombia to a 3-1 win in their World Cup opener against debutants Uzbekistan on Wednesday.

“Today I’m living out my childhood dream of playing in a World Cup for my national team and for my country. And what could be more beautiful than contributing with a goal and an assist?,” Diaz said.

“We’re a very close-knit group, we’ll keep improving game by game, and I’m just very, very happy.”

Bayern Munich star Diaz hit the post in the 32nd minute but served Daniel Muñoz’s opener in the 41st, sending a brilliant long ball to the box.

Uzbekistan, coached by Italy’s 2006 World Champion Fabio Cannavaro, levelled in the 60th as Abbosbek Fayzullaev scored their first-ever goal at a World Cup.

Eldor Shomurodov hit a volley and goalkeeper Camilo Vargas made a mess of the saving, giving Fayzullaev space to nod it home.

But celebrations were short lived as Colombia retook the lead just five minutes later. The ball was played left to Diaz and he slotted it across goal to add his name to the scoresheet.

Akmal Mozgovoy had a late chance to bring Uzbekistan level again but he fired high and wide, while on the other side, Colombia sealed the deal in the ninth minute of stoppage time.

Cucho Hernandez worked hard down the right to retain the ball and once he finally had space, he served a clinical cross to Jaminton Campaz, who powered a header into the net.

“I think we had a great match but this is the level of the World Cup. When you make some mistakes, you pay. But we tried to do something so I’m proud of my players. Maybe we deserved something more but this is football,” Cannavaro said.

Colombia surprisingly top Group K ahead of top favourites Portugal, who are third after they started their World Cup campaign with a 1-1 draw against the Democratic Republic of Congo earlier.

ANEWS wp:paragraph