PICK OF THE DAY
Columbia - Poland
Tip : 3+ (over 2.5)
Odd : 2.30
FT : 3:0 WIN!!!
Poland knew that this World Cup group would be tough when they came into the tournament, but despite their rather evenly matched opponents, they were still one of the favourites to make it through the group stages and into the knockout round.
However, they now find themselves on the back foot. They lost 2-1 against Senegal in their opening game on Tuesday, and their dour display during that match doesn’t promise much in the way of a resurgence.
Their afternoon was summed up well when Thiago Cionek deflected the ball into his own net eight minutes before half time, but his almost unavoidable mistake was forgotten when Gregorz Krychowiak made a very avoidable one. The West Brom midfielder played an horrendous back-pass that was swiftly intercepted by Mbaye Niang, who duly doubled Senegal’s lead. Krychowiak regained some level of dignity when he pulled a goal back for Poland, but it was a very poor showing from the entire team.
Colombia were also on the end of a 2-1 defeat in their opener, although their’s was a lot more understandable. Carlos Sanchez made the rash decision to block a Japanese shot with his hand just three minutes into the match. This decision haunted Colombians for the next 87 minutes, with the midfielder sent off and Shinji Kagawa converting the resulting penalty.
In fairness to the South Americans, they bounced back well from this very early setback. Despite playing the vast majority of the game with ten men they controlled the match, and a clever free kick from Juan Fernando Quintero deservedly pulled them level. In the end it wasn’t to be as Japan’s Osako put them back in front, but there were plenty of positives to take from Colombia’s performance.
They may be without Sanchez on Sunday, but they will at least have 11 men on the pitch again. Not to mention the fact that James Rodriguez will return to the starting lineup after his calf injury constrained him to a cameo from the bench against Japan. The Bayern Munich midfielder set the World Cup alight in Brazil four years ago, and with 21 goals in 64 games for Colombia, six of which came in their qualifying campaign, we’re backing him to get on the scoresheet here.
We’re expecting a high scoring game here. Poland have seen at least three goals in each of their last 11 competitive matches, a run which stretches all the way back to their Euro 2016 exit. Meanwhile, four of Colombia’s last six matches have seen at least three goals, so backing Over 2.5 Goals here looks a good choice.
Colombia look a far better side that Poland after their opening matches, and we expect the South Americans to triumph here. For this reason, we’re also backing a Colombia Win and Both Teams to Score along with a 2-1 correct score predictions.
Poland Predicted Lineup: Szczesny, Bereszynski, Cionek, Pazdan, Rybus, Krychowiak, Zielinski, Grosicki, Blaszczykowski, Milik, Lewandowski
Colombia Predicted Lineup: Ospina, Arias, Sanchez, Murillo, Mojica, Lerma, Barrios, Cuadrado, Rodriguez, Quintero, Falcao
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