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Joey - June 23, 2018
Poland vs Colombia
World Cup 2018 Group H
Date: Sunday, 24 June 2018
Kick-Off at 19:00 UK / 20:00 CET
Venue: Kazan Arena, Kazan.
Poland and Colombia take on each other in a must –win situation for both teams who have suffered disappointing defeats in their opening fixtures at the World Cup. Group’s favourites are thus in danger of getting eliminated after only two rounds as there will be no room for mistake for either of the sides on Monday at Kazan Arena.
Poland were the seeded team in a generally open Group H, but they failed to justify the tag losing 1-2 to African hopefuls Senegal in the opening fixture. Adam Nawalka’s men actually showed nothing of the game which led them to the top spot in the respective qualifying group with eight wins in ten matches.
The Poles just did not have an answer to the Senegalese super stern defensive line with Salif Sane and Kalidou Koulibaly shutting Robert Lewandowski down entirely throughout the 90 minutes of play. The 29-year-old Bayern Munich forward thus did nothing to threat the Senegalese goal in his maiden appearance at the World Cup and he will need a massive help from his uninspiring teammates against Colombia if the Europeans are to keep their hopes alive before the third-round.
To make things worse for Poland, they are about to take on a side which is also in a must-win situation here. Los Cafeteros had a nightmare kick off to their World Cup campaign as the defensive midfielder Carlos Sanchez was sent off after only three minutes of play. Shinji Kagawa was safe from the spot to push Japan ahead in the early stages of the game.
Jose Pekerman’s troops managed to recover from such shock as Juan Quintero’s clever free-kick found the back of the net below the jumping wall for the equalizer just before the break. Still, the South Americans could not hold on to the level terms as Yuya Osako provided a cool finish with a header from Keisuke Honda’s corner kick to give Samurai Blue a huge opening round victory.
Szczesny – Cionek, Pazdan, Bednarek – Piszczek, Rybus, Krychowiak, Zielinski, Grosicki – Milik, Lewandowski.
Ospina – Arias, Mina, Murillo, Mojica – Lerma, Quintero – Cuadrado, James Rodriguez, Izquierdo – Falcao.
The two sides met just once in the past. The occasion was a friendly game played at Stadion Slaski in Chorzow. Elkin Murillo and Luis Martinez notched goals in a 1-2 victory for the Colombians.
Substitute Ireneusz Jelen could only pull one back for the hosts back then netting the consolation goal in the 90th minute.
Poland have huge troubles with the efficiency at World Cups. They lost seven out of last nine World Cup affairs failing to find the back of the net on six occasions in these defeats. The first round at this edition of the tournament does not promise such poor record changing anytime soon, particularly knowing they are about to take on the high-profile opposition who are in an equal need for points on the day.
Moving forward, Nawalka’s defensive line is anything but reliable without the first-team regular centre-back Kamil Glik who suffered an injury right before the tournament kicked off. Monaco’s defender will likely skip the Colombia clash leaving Thiago Cionek as the best call to make the starting line-up in spite of scoring a bizarre own goal to push Senegal ahead of Tuesday evening.
James Rodriguez should make the starting line-up for Colombia who have to be considered pretty clear favourites to go past the un-inspiring Polish side here. Los Cafeteros are well worth backing to win at 2.25, while braver punters could fancy the HT/FT victory for the South Americans at the 3.60 odds.
Poland vs Colombia Predictions from Statistical Analysis, ©LeagueLane®
