Learn Portuguese (Portugal): O colega confirmou que ele anteciparia o churrasco. - The colleague confirmed that he would bring the barbecue forward.

This is an example of reported speech. Because the main verb (confirmou) is in the past tense, the reported action must shift back in time. The original direct quote was likely in the future indicative: 'I will bring the barbecue forward' (anteciparei) or 'He will bring it forward' (antecipará). When reported in the past, that future indicative backshifts to the conditional (anteciparia).

Does antecipar just mean 'to anticipate'?

While it can mean 'to anticipate' or 'to expect', in the context of a scheduled event like o churrasco (the barbecue), it means 'to bring forward' or 'to reschedule to an earlier time'. For example, moving a party from Sunday to Saturday. The opposite, to postpone, is adiar.

Does ele refer to the colleague or someone else?

It most likely refers to someone else. In Portuguese, if the subject of the second clause is the exact same person as the main clause, we typically drop the pronoun to avoid repetition (O colega confirmou que anteciparia...). By explicitly including ele, the speaker is strongly implying that a different man is the one moving the schedule, though context would confirm this.

If we replaced o churrasco with a pronoun, where would it go?