Saturday, June 23, 2018

Poland vs Colombia Live Stream, Predictions, Betting and Match Previews

Poland knew that this World Cup group would be difficult when they entered the tournament, but despite their fairly uniformly matched opponents, they were still one of the favorites to pass the group stages and in the elimination round direct.

However, they are now on the back foot. They lost 2-1 to Senegal in their opening match on Tuesday, and their gloomy match did not promise much of a resurgence.

Their afternoon was summed up well when Thiago Cionek hijacked the ball in his own net eight minutes before half-time, but his almost inevitable mistake was forgotten when Gregorz Krychowiak made a very preventable run. The West Brom midfielder played a horrible back-pass that was quickly intercepted by Mbaye Niang, who doubled Senegal's lead. Krychowiak regained a certain level of dignity by bringing back a goal for Poland, but it was a very bad performance on the part of the whole team.

Colombia was also at the end of a 2-1 defeat in their opening match, although it was much more understandable to them. Carlos Sanchez made the ill-considered decision to block a Japanese shot with his hand just three minutes from the match. This decision haunted the Colombians for the next 87 minutes, with the midfielder ejected and Shinji Kagawa converting the resulting penalty.

In all fairness to the South Americans, they have rebounded well since that very beginning. Despite playing the vast majority of the game with ten men, they controlled the game, and a smart free kick from Juan Fernando Quintero earned them at their level. In the end, it was not the case for Osako of Japan, but there were many positive points to draw from the Colombian performance.

They may be without Sanchez Sunday, but they will have at least 11 men on the field again. Not to mention the fact that James Rodriguez will return to the starting lineup after his calf injury forced him to a cameo against Japan. The Bayern Munich midfielder fired the World Cup in Brazil four years ago and with 21 goals in 64 games for Colombia, including six in their qualifying campaign, we support him to get the score sheet right here.

We are waiting for a high scoring game here. Poland have scored at least three goals in each of their last 11 competitive matches, a run that dates back to the Euro 2016 exit. Meanwhile, four of Colombia's last six games have had at least three goals, so the return of more than 2.5 goals seems like a good choice.

Colombia has a better side than Poland after their opening matches, and we are waiting for the South Americans to triumph here. For this reason, we also support a Colombia win and both teams to score with a correct score prediction of 2-1.

Composition expected in Poland: Szczesny, Bereszynski, Cionek, Pazdan, Rybus, Krychowiak, Zielinsky, Grosicki, Blaszczykowski, Milik, Lewandowski

Planned composition in Colombia:
Ospina, Arias, Sanchez, Murillo, Mojica, Lerma, Barrios, Cuadrado, Rodriguez, Quintero, Falcao

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HEAD-TO-HEAD

Colombia won its only previous meeting with Poland 2-1 in 2006, but this will be the first competitive match between nations.

POLAND VS COLOMBIA STATS

None of the nine matches of the World Cup of Poland against South American opponents ended in a draw, the Eagles winning four wins and five losses.
Only once did Colombia lose its first two games in a World Cup tournament against Romania and the United States in 1994.
None of Colombia's 19 matches at the World Cup have ended.
Poland have lost seven of their last nine World Cup (W2) matches, failing to score six of their losses.
Poland failed to keep a clean sheet in their last nine World Cup matches after beating Portugal 1-0 in 1986.
Juan Quintero became the first Colombian player to score in two different World Cup tournaments in his first loss to Japan (2014 and 2018).
Although he failed to score against Senegal in the opening match of Poland, Robert Lewandowski has scored 21 goals in his last 16 games for his national team.
Colombian Carlos Sanchez's red card in his opening match against Japan was the first reminder of the 2018 World Cup and was also Colombia's first send-out in the competition.