Football Previews
Colombia vs Japan Competition – FIFA World Cup Stadium – Mordovia Arena Date: 19th June 2018 Kick-off time – 13:00 GMT
At the last World Cup Colombia had a great tournament.
They reached the quarterfinals before losing to the host Brazil.
James Rodriguez should remember that competition as a turning point in his career.
He scored one of the best goals of the tournament against Uruguay, after another beauty against Japan.
His performances earned him a move to Real Madrid that summer.
The Colombians will be looking forward to another great tournament as they start with this game against Japan.
The Colombians opted to play just one friendly game before this competition and it ended in a goalless draw.
They come into this game unbeaten in their last four games, however, their lack of warm up games may prove a bad idea.
By contrast Japan have been involved in a couple of friendlies and they come into this opening World Cup fixture on the back of a win over Paraguay last week.
However, their preparations haven’t been all that positive.
Prior to that win they were beaten by Switzerland and Ghana 2-0 each.
The Japanese come in this match having suffered losses in four of their last six games and they seem to struggle against good opposition.
They have won against only one other nation participating in this World Cup in the past year, suffering losses at the hands of Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Belgium, among others.
This is the first time these teams have met.
Results of each team’s last 5 matches across all leagues and competitions
Colombia
| LAST FIVE GAMES | DATE | COMPETITION | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D | Egypt |  |
0-0 |  |
Colombia | 1 Jun, 2018 | International Friendly |
| D | Colombia | |
0-0 |  |
Australia | 27 Mar, 2018 | International Friendly |
| W | France |  |
2-3 | |
Colombia | 23 Mar, 2018 | International Friendly |
| W | China |  |
0-4 | |
Colombia | 14 Nov, 2017 | International Friendly |
| L | South Korea |  |
2-1 | |
Colombia | 10 Nov, 2017 | International Friendly |
Japan
| LAST FIVE GAMES | DATE | COMPETITION | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | Japan |  |
4-2 |  |
Paraguay | 12 Jun, 2018 | International Friendly |
| L | Switzerland |  |
2-0 | |
Japan | 8 Jun, 2018 | International Friendly |
| L | Japan | |
0-2 |  |
Ghana | 30 May, 2018 | International Friendly |
| L | Japan | |
1-2 |  |
Ukraine | 27 Mar, 2018 | International Friendly |
| D | Japan | |
1-1 |  |
Mali | 23 Mar, 2018 | International Friendly |
H2H
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