Colombia vs Japan PREVIEW & PREDICTION 19/06/2018

COLOMBIA VS JAPAN PREVIEW & PREDICTION

The action of Group H in the 2018 World Cup opens on Tuesday, when at the Mordovia Arena in Saransk, the South American team of Colombia faces an always daring Asian team such as Japan.

Colombia:

Those led by the Argentine coach José Pekerman arrive in Russia 2018 determined to equal or improve their participation in the 2014 Brazil World Cup where they reached the quarterfinals, where unfortunately they ran into host Brazil who beat them 2-1 that was his only defeat in the five games played, where the previous four ended with a coffee victory.

The 2014 World Cup Brazil was very special for the Colombian midfielder James Rodriguez who finished as the scorer of the tournament with five goals and this took him to Real Madrid where he could not consolidate, but his transfer to Bayern Munich was very good to recover his level and Now he is determined to make a good World Cup and the best thing is that unlike the previous world cup, for Russia 2018 he will be able to count on the presence of his best attacking partner, Radamel Falcao.

The close of the preparation stage was not entirely positive for the coffee team as they draw against Australia and Egypt to zero goals, although the advantage is that they reach a record of four games without losing.

Japan:

The situation of the Japanese team is quite rare, and is that Japan qualified in a solvent way for the World Cup Russia 2018 ahead of Saudi Arabia and Australia, but the results achieved in the friendlies against Belgium, Brazil and Ukraine led to the exit of the Bosnian technical Vahid Halilhodzic, although to be more honest the decision to separate the European coach was because he decided to leave out of the selection history players in Japanese football such as Shinji Kagawa, Shinji Okazaki and Keisuke Honda, who have returned to the Japanese team under the command of Akira Nishino.

Despite the change of coach and the re-entry of the referents, the reality of Japan has not improved, and we say that despite winning his last game against Paraguay before it added three consecutive losses and for now it is an uncertainty what can present in his game against a powerful selection as is Colombia.

In terms of direct confrontations, these teams have met on three occasions, the first of which was the Confederations Cup in 2003 with a triumph for Colombia for the minimum difference, then came a goalless draw in the 2007 Kirim Cup and the most recent confrontation was in the last World Cup Brazil 2014 where they were part of Group C and was sealed with a 4-1 goal win thanks to a double by James Rodriguez.

Possible alignments:

Colombia: Ospina; Davinson Sánchez, Mina, Arias, Fabra; Carlos Sánchez, Aguilar, Cuadrado, Rodríguez, Uribe; Falcao.

Japan: Kawashima; Yoshida, Makino, Sakai, Nagatomo; Hasebe, Oshima, Okazaki, Kagawa, Inui; Sling.


PREDICTION: Both teams to score / NO @ 1.70

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