With the World Cup in mind, Benfica star slips up v Croatia | OneFootball

Colombia, Portugal’s opponent at the 2026 World Cup, lost 2-1 to Croatia on the night of Thursday, March 26, in a friendly played in Orlando, United States of America. Richard Ríos started for the 'coffee growers' side.

Just two minutes into the match, Jhon Arias put Colombia ahead. The player signed by Palmeiras in this winter transfer window finished with his left foot from inside the box to make it 1-0. Having featured in this match, the right winger now has 35 appearances for the South American national team.

In a game with an interesting start, Luka Vuskovic, who currently plays for Hamburg, equalised shortly afterwards, in the sixth minute, with a left-footed strike from outside the area. The ball still took a deflection off an opponent, hit the post and went in.

After that, the match had several goalscoring chances at both ends, and one of them fell to Suárez. The Sporting striker missed the touch on the ball with the goal completely at his mercy, after a pass from Luis Díaz, and could hardly believe afterwards what he had wasted.

The one who did not miss, in the 42nd minute, was Igor Matanovic, a Freiburg player, who made it 2-1 for Croatia with a header after a corner taken by Pasalic on the right. The Benfica midfielder - who renewed with the duo - was eventually substituted in the 71st minute of the match.

Colombia face France on Sunday in Landover at 20:00, in their second and final friendly in this international window. It should be remembered that Portugal face the South American side in the third and final matchday of Group K, in Miami, after opening on June 17 in Houston against Jamaica or DR Congo and then playing Uzbekistan on June 23.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.