Colombia coach wants players to stay focused

Colombia 3 Greece 0

The South Americans, making their first World Cup appearance since 1998, beat Greece 3-0 in their Group C opener in Belo Horizonte on Saturday with goals from Pablo Armero, Teofilo Gutierrez and James Rodriguez.

“We are very happy to have taken this win,” Pekerman said.

“It was a good debut for my players who had never played at a World Cup. But this is just the first game and we haven’t achieved anything yet.”

Ivory Coast, who are also won their Group C game against Japan, are Colombia’s next opponents at the Nacional Stadium in Brasilia on Thursday.

“Ivory Coast is one of the strongest African teams,” Pekerman said. “They have already played in World Cups and have players that have a lot of experience.”

“We will have to show the same focus that we had against Greece and try to recover the players as soon as possible considering the intensity of the game against Greece.”

COLOMBIA: Ospina, Zuniga, Zapata, Yepes, Armero (Arias 74), Sanchez Moreno, Aguilar (Mejia 69), Rodriguez, Cuadrado, Gutierrez (Martinez 76), Ibarbo.

Subs not used: Vargas, Carbonero, Balanta, Bacca, Ramos, Quintero, Valdes, Mondragon.

GREECE: Karnezis, Manolas, Torosidis, Papastathopoulos, Holebas, Maniatis, Katsouranis, Kone (Karagounis 78), Salpingidis (Fetfatzidis 57), Gekas (Mitroglou 64), Samaras.

Subs not used: Glykos, Tzavelas, Moras, Tziolis, Vyntra, Christodoulopoulos, Samaris, Tachtsidis, Kapino.

Att: 57,174

Ref: Mark Geiger (USA).