Carlos Queiroz arrived at Kansas City Stadium on Thursday and immediately recast a World Cup round-of-32 tie as a continental obligation. With only Morocco having advanced to the last 16 from a record nine African group-stage qualifiers, the Ghana head coach told reporters his side must “improve these statistics” and “add another African team to the next round.” The language was deliberate: viewed from Accra, the exits of Senegal, Ivory Coast and DR Congo have turned a football match into a test of collective nerve, and Queiroz, a veteran of five consecutive World Cups, placed that weight squarely on his players’ shoulders.

His tactical briefing was blunt. “There are no perfect teams,” he said, acknowledging Colombia’s quality under Néstor Lorenzo while insisting his own squad would target their opponents’ weaker points. “Tomorrow there is no room for mistakes. We have to do everything right for 90 minutes, or 120 minutes if necessary.” Colombian outlets noted the Portuguese’s intimate knowledge of their national set-up—he led the side at the 2019 Copa América—but Queiroz stressed his staff had studied “today’s Colombia, not yesterday’s Colombia,” a team he described as well-organised and disciplined.

The press conference then shifted to a deeply personal register. Queiroz recalled his former goalkeeping coach, Des McAleenan, who died after a period of isolation and depression during the Covid-19 pandemic while working with the Colombian federation. “I want to remember that serving Colombia, our goalkeeper coach died,” he said, calling on the federation to “repair what happened to Des Macalina and his family.” The moment, widely reported across African and Latin American media, added a layer of emotional gravity to an already charged fixture.

Captain Jordan Ayew invoked Ghana’s own history, referencing the run to the 2010 quarter-finals in South Africa. “Those are the moments we want to bring back,” he said, while framing the Colombia match as a 50-50 contest. Queiroz, for his part, dismissed the pressure of knockout football as a burden, calling it “a privilege” and urging his players to “enjoy the game and do everything that is in our hearts and souls.”

The match kicks off at 01:30 GMT on Saturday in Kansas City. A place in the quarter-finals awaits the winner, and for Ghana, the chance to carry Africa’s hopes deeper into a tournament that has already seen the continent’s record participation whittled down to its final contenders.