Senegal V Colombia World Cup 2018

Senegal V Colombia

Synopsis in red

Beers: Group E of Beer World Cup:

World Cup of Beer Group H

Club Colombia today will qualify for the last 16 of my beer world cup with victory over Senegal. Couldn’t source a beer from the African country, so let me just enjoy a nice cold one from Colombia instead.

Club Colombia head for the last 16 of my Beer World Cup, with no competition from Senegal

PreGame:

Colombia V Poland: Well well well, Colombia beating Poland certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons. Colombia have shown that they might be a dark horse in this years world cup, a team that can play good football, pass it on the deck and can score goals. Plus in James Rodríguez they have a truly world class star and play maker.

It was a big game for both teams, a win was needed, lose and you are out of the World Cup. The atmosphere was electric (mostly thanks to the Colombian fans) and the tension high. Poland started livelier but as the game went on there was really only one team in this game, Colombia!

Mojica from banging long balls up from defense, causing all sorts of problems on both wings, Barrios working hard as a defensive midfielder, while James Rod was doing his thing in the centre of the park. It was all Colombia and Poland had nothing to stop them.

From a short well worked corner, Mina headed home the first goal, put on a plate for him by Rodríguez, excellent. The second came from Falcao, on the 70th minute, just when I thought he was not doing much he pops up to score a real strikers goal, placing coolly beyond the Polish goalie, brilliant. Not even 5 minutes later we got the third, another great pass by Rodríguez to this time set up Cuadrado, who capped off a fine performance with a well taken goal, scoring with little difficulty. It is so easy for these Colombian fellas.

Colombia looked great and you would imagine they should have too much in the arsenal to beat a limited enough Senegal.

Senegal V Japan: Well done to Japan, for coming behind twice to get back into the game, and I am sure if there were another ten minutes or so to the game they might have nicked it, as they had all the momentum near the end of the game.

Good start to the game from Senegal, and sure enough it didn’t take long for them to take the lead. A lucky goal but Mané wont mind, capitalizing on a bad mistake by the Japanese goalie, Kawashima, who palmed the ball straight into the path of the Senegalese striker. What a gift for Senegal to take the lead.

But Japan came back with a lovely goal by Inui, who placed it lovely into the back of the net, great goal and a nice run and pass from by Nagatomoto set it all up. Senegal were sitting on their lead by this time and deserved to be punished.

In the second half there really was only one team, Japan. Inui hitting the top of the crossbar with an unbelievable strike, unlucky. But against the run of play Senegal only just went up the field and scored another goal. Wagué with a nice goal from a tight angle from a lovely ball into the box from Sabaly.

But once again, Senegal decided to site on their lead and once again they were punished for some diabolical defending and play. A goal keeping mistake from K N’Diaye, where he completely missed the ball not once but twice, let Honda tap in for the equaliser.

Today Senegal still have it all to play for in a very tight group, a win will be enough, but a draw might do, and even a lose and they could still scrape through, if Poland decide to do them a favour.

A more detailed review on Senegal here and on Colombia here

Looked at the first half of this game:

Senegal have only themselves to blame, after wasting so many chances in the first half, with Mane, Balde and the rest of the forward line missing some decent chances and generally messing up some attacking play. When its 3 v 2 a few times and you still lose the game, you can whinge all you want about yellow cards and unfairness, but the reality is your team weren’t that good at all. Senegal should have scored a few in the first half. End of!

Colombia on the other hand, were lucky. I dont know how they managed to win this game, as in the first half they were simply awful and then to make matters worse they lost Rodríguez who had to go off with an injury. Cuadrado was simply brutal today, couldn’t even manage a simply pass all game, and spent most of the game falling to the ground. If they dont get James Rod back in time, and its asking a lot in 5 days, then I cant see them causing Belgium or England too many problems.