{"id":671176,"date":"2026-06-23T02:43:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T06:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=671176"},"modified":"2026-06-23T02:43:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T06:43:18","slug":"colombia-vs-dr-congo-team-news-and-predicted-lineups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/06\/23\/colombia-vs-dr-congo-team-news-and-predicted-lineups\/","title":{"rendered":"Colombia vs DR Congo: Team News and Predicted Lineups"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A win or a draw would push Colombia into the knockout phase of the 2026 World Cup, while DR Congo looks to build momentum after their opening match draw against a favored Portugal side. We offer our predicted lineups and team news for this final clash of the second matchday.<\/p>\n<p>Read More:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/06\/23\/2026-world-cup-matchday-13-predictions-including-england-vs-ghana\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"2026 World Cup Matchday 8 Predictions Including Mexico vs South Korea\" target=\"_self\">2026 World Cup Matchday 13 predictions including Colombia vs DR Congo<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Colombia vs DR Congo<\/h2>\n<p>Date: Tuesday, June 23rd, 2026<br \/>\nVenue: Estadio Akron in Guadalajara<br \/>\nKick Off: 22:00 in Guadalajara<br \/>\nReferee: Maurizio Mariani<br \/>\nCurrent Odds: Colombia 1.55, Draw 4.2, DR Congo 7.5<\/p>\n<h3>Colombia Team News<\/h3>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOB9PC594iX\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 4490px; aspect-ratio: 4490\/2993;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>Manager Nestor Lorenzo trusts his veteran squad, and Colombia are unlikely to make any XI changes for matchday 2. That means James Rodriguez is still the #10 after a subpar first game, Johan Mojica would still be at LB, and Camilo Vargas would remain in goal. Cucho Hernandez and Jaminton Campaz had good shifts off the bench against Uzbekistan but are not set to start. The experienced Richard Rios is still considered the backup behind Gustavo Puerto in the midfield.<\/p>\n<p>Lorenzo urged his team to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/sports\/soccer\/colombia-wary-dr-congo-threat-lorenzo-calls-calm-heads-2026-06-22\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">have<\/a> a &#8220;hot heart and a cool head&#8221; in their approach to the game and didn&#8217;t offer any clues about the lineup.<\/p>\n<h3>DR Congo Team News<\/h3>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBvtSZGJNY\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 4832px; aspect-ratio: 4832\/3522;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>DR Congo used five at the back against Portugal, Colombia likely demands the same respect, especially after they scored three goals in the opening game. That would mean no XI changes, with Cedric Bakambu and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/football\/colombia\/world-cup-2026\/feature\/four-major-talking-points-before-colombia-and-dr-congo-meet-at-world-cup-2026_599837.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yoane Wissa<\/a> shouldering the attack, and the remaining eight outfield players for DR Congo set to be behind the ball for Sebastien Desabre. Congo&#8217;s goal is to stifle Colombia and create the conditions needed to score a precious goal. It&#8217;s Aaron Wan-Bissaka who has the task of trying to manage the runs on the wing of Luis Diaz.<\/p>\n<p>Read More:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/06\/20\/with-flair-and-consistency-the-2026-world-cup-host-nations-usa-mexico-and-canada-reach-the-world-cup-knockout-phase\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"With Flair and Consistency, USA, Mexico, and Canada Reach Knockout Phase\" target=\"_self\">With Flair and Consistency, The 2026 World Cup Host Nations USA, Mexico, and Canada Reach the World Cup Knockout Phase<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Colombia Predicted Lineup (4-2-3-1)<\/h3>\n<p>GK; Camilo Vargas<\/p>\n<p>Defenders: Johan Mojica, Jhon Lucumi, Davinson Sanchez, Daniel Munoz<\/p>\n<p>Midfield: Gustavo Puerta, Jefferson Lerma, James Rodriguez<\/p>\n<p>Forwards: Luis Diaz, Luis Suarez, Jhon Arias<\/p>\n<h3>DR Congo Predicted Lineup (5-3-2)<\/h3>\n<p>GK: Lionel Mpasi Nzau<\/p>\n<p>Defenders: Arthur Masuaku, Steve Kapuadi, Axel Tuanzebe, Chancel Mbemba, Aaron Wan-Bissaka<\/p>\n<p>Midfield: Edo Kayembe, Samuel Moutoussamy, Ngal&#8217;ayel Mukau<\/p>\n<p>Forwards: Yoane Wissa, Cedric Bakambu<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Smartframe Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A win or a draw would push Colombia into the knockout phase of the 2026 World Cup, while DR Congo looks to build momentum after their opening match draw against a favored Portugal side. We offer our predicted lineups and team news for this final clash of the second matchday. Read More:\u00a02026 World Cup Matchday [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1442,"featured_media":671179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":true,"sfio_embed_code":"<smartframe-embed customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBO5UZ3gNK\" style=\"width: 100%;max-width: 4353px;aspect-ratio: 4353\/2897\"><\/smartframe-embed><!-- https:\/\/smartframe.io\/embedding-support -->","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,161,1831,2132],"tags":[798,226,7220,1111,8859,32569],"class_list":["post-671176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international-football","category-starting-line-up","category-world-cup","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-colombia","tag-dr-congo","tag-james-rodriguez","tag-luis-diaz","tag-nestor-lorenzo"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1442"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":671178,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671176\/revisions\/671178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}