Poland and Colombia were their own worst enemies in the first round of matches with silly mistakes costing both nations dearly.
Both were defeated by ‘lesser’ opposition and will know full well that a defeat on Sunday will all but end their hopes of progressing to the next round of the competition.
FIFA World Cup
Poland vs Colombia
Group H
Sunday 24 June
Ekaterinburg Arena
20:00
To Win
Poland 23/10
Draw 9/4
Colombia 23/20
Poland
The Poles were let down by several moments of madness against Senegal. The African side’s second goal was truly footballing comedy gold. Things got tasty as Grzegorz Krychowiak lumped a 65-yard back pass to his keeper.
For some unknown reason, the fourth official allowed M’Baye Niang to enter the pitch after receiving treatment for a knock. The Torino centre-forward went tearing after the ball as Wojciech Szczesny rushed out his goal in a bid to clear. The Polish keeper’s weak attempt to clear proved unsuccessful as Niang got the decisive touch as he rolled the ball into an open net.
Indeed the Polish will need to eliminate silly errors against a Colombian side who will punish them. Other than that almighty blunder, however, the Poles looked solid defensively and kept the ball pretty well. They will need more cutting edge though and will need to service star man Robert Lewandowski if they are to one-up the South Americans.
Colombia
Colombia will be hoping for a slightly better start in this time around. The South Americans were reduced to 10 men inside of four minutes as Carlos Sanchez Moreno was given his marching orders for deliberately handling the ball, thus keeping out Shinji Kagawa’s goal-bound effort.
As it would happen, Kagawa would convert the resulting penalty to give his side the lead regardless. The Colombians dominated the remainder of the first half and would eventually equalise as Juan Fernando Quintero’s clever free-kick fizzed beneath the wall to creep over the line despite the best efforts of the Japanese keeper.
The second half was a completely different story as the Japanese controlled the game with the Colombians looking all at sea. Not even the introduction of the talismanic James Rodriguez could spark the South Americans into life.
He will return to the starting XI having got over the worst of his calf injury and will look to pull the strings in behind Radamel Falcao – who like Lewandowski – fed largely off of scraps in his side’s opening encounter.
Probable line-ups:
Poland: 4-2-3-1
Szczesny; Piszczek, Glik, Pazdan, Rybus; Krychowiak, Linetty; Blaszczykowski, Zielinski, Grosicki; Lewandowski
Colombia: 4-2-3-1
Ospina; Arias, Mina, D. Sanchez, Fabra; Aguilar, W. Barrios; Cuadrado, James, Quintero; Falcao
Prediction: Colombia Win & Both Teams to Score (34/10)
Both sides know that they realistically need to win this match to keep their World Cup dream alive. Colombia are a far better outfit and will profit with the return of James to the starting XI. Back them to concede as well as claim three points against Poland.
Written by Jason Dewey