Diogo Costa laments Portugal’s lost focus in goalless Colombia draw

Diogo Costa left Miami with the match ball, the MVP award and a blunt assessment of Portugal’s 0-0 draw with Colombia on 27 June 2026. The Portugal goalkeeper said his side lost concentration in key moments against a strong Colombia team, even as he argued that the quality of the Portuguese squad remained the clearest route to a victory in the knockout rounds.

The result closed Group K at Miami Stadium with Portugal, Colombia, Uzbekistan and Congo DR still tightly bound to FIFA’s bracket math. FIFA had made clear before kickoff that the group winner would move onto a different elimination path than the second-placed team, landing in Kansas City on 3 July against a third-place finisher from Group D, E, I, J or L, while the runner-up would face the Group L runner-up in Toronto on 2 July.

Costa had sounded confident before the match. In a separate statement to the Federação Portuguesa de Futebol, he said Portugal had “Energia boa para sair com vitória,” tying the team’s outlook to both the quality inside the squad and the backing of Portuguese supporters. After the draw, that confidence sat alongside frustration over the passages in which Portugal lost its shape and allowed Colombia to dictate the tempo.

The FPF later confirmed that the game finished 0-0 and that Costa received the MVP award. International coverage highlighted several decisive interventions from the goalkeeper, whose stops preserved Portugal’s point in a match that carried more than simple group-stage weight. A draw in Miami still mattered because of the route it set in the knockout bracket, and because Portugal had entered the final stretch of the group phase trying to recover momentum after a 1-1 draw with Congo DR.

That earlier stumble had sharpened the sense that Portugal needed a cleaner finish to the group. FIFA had placed the team in one of the tournament’s most demanding sections, and its pre-tournament profile had underlined Cristiano Ronaldo as the headline reference point while also identifying Costa as one of the squad’s key figures.

Rúben Neves had offered the same message in different words, urging total focus and saying Portugal had to think “juego a juego” to win the World Cup. Costa’s comments in Miami reflected the same tension: a team convinced of its own experience, but still vulnerable when concentration slipped against Colombia.