19TH June
COLOMBIA VS JAPAN
Match kicks off at 13:00 (BST) on BBC 1. Coverage starts at 12:30 (BST). Presented by Dan Walker, commentary from Steve Wilson and Kevin Kilbane.
Colombia, ranked 16th in the world, come into this tournament 4 years on being the surprise package at the last World Cup. At the last World Cup they were the entertainers, attacking football with great celebrations. They qualified in 4th place in the South American qualifying finishing on 27 points from 18 games. They have a lot of very good players playing across Europe; Yerry Mina, Davinson Sanchez, Juan Cuadrado and Radamel Falcao, to name just a few. Their star player however is still James Rodriguez, who was the breakout star at the last world cup and despite not quite kicking on at Real Madrid, has had a better season at Bayern this year. He was also top goal scorer in qualifying for them.
Japan, ranked 61st in the world, have now reached their 6th consecutive World Cup since they 1st qualified back in France 1998. They were impressive is Asian qualifying finish ahead of Saudi Arabia and Australia to top their group. However, they are the underdog in Group H and I think most would view it as an achievement if they didn’t finish bottom. Genki Haraguchi of Fortuna Dusseldorf was their top goal scorer in qualifying with 4 goals. Yoshida, Honda, Kagawa and Okazaki are amongst their most notable players.
POLAND VS SENEGAL
Match kicks off at 16:00 (BST) on ITV 1. Coverage starts at 15:25 (BST). Mark Pougatch is joined by Henrik Larsson, Patrice Evra and Slaven Bilic, commentary from Jon Champion and Ally McCoist.
Poland come into this tournament ranked a surprising 8th in the world. They could be viewed as a potential dark horse but they are in such a well balanced group, that nobody is quite sure who is going through from their group. They were very good in the groups and finished 5 points above their closest challengers Denmark, with a record of 8 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. This is probably the best group of players they’ve had in a long time with many of their players playing in top leagues across Europe. However, Lewandowski is without a doubt their star player, he was the highest goal scorer across the whole of Europe in qualifying with 16 goals in 10 games. They also have other quality players like Zielinski to back Lewandowski up.
Senegal despite being in a tough group are being talked about as dark horses unlike Poland. They were unbeaten in qualifying, finishing on 14 points out of 6 games with Diafra Sakho finishing as the top goal scorer with 2 goals. I personally don’t see them as dark horses but they have a couple of players that can certainly cause teams problems. Sadio Mane has had a good season and is without a doubt their star attacking player and Koulibaly has had an excellent season for Napoli and he will be their defensive stalwart. Idrissa Gueye, Kouyate and Keita Balde are among other familiar players.
RUSSIA VS EGYPT
Match kicks off at 19:00 (BST) on BBC 1. Coverage starts at 18:30 (BST). Presented by Gary Lineker, commentary by Jonathan Pearce and Danny Murphy.
Bit of a different write up for this one given we’ve seen them play.
Was Russia’s first result down to how good they were or how bad Saudi Arabia were? I suspect it was more of the latter but I guess we’ll find out. Russia would probably be happy with a draw given Egypt will be their threat for 2nd place in the group and with that 5 goal buffer goal difference is less of a worry for them. Cheryshev surprised with his performance from the bench against Saudi Arabia and he along with Golovin will probably be key to their performance here.
Goalscorers so far:
Cheryshev (2), Gazinskiy (1), Dzyuba (1), Golovin (1).
Egypt were cruelly but deservedly robbed at the death in their first game vs Uruguay. They need at least a point from this game to give them a chance of going through in the final group game. That said, I think they really need to win, otherwise they will require a big win in their final group game and results to go their way. The big question is; will Salah play? Or is he even fit enough to play? I suspect they may have to chance him in this game at some point.
No Goalscorers so far.
Group A as it stands:
COLOMBIA VS JAPAN
Match kicks off at 13:00 (BST) on BBC 1. Coverage starts at 12:30 (BST). Presented by Dan Walker, commentary from Steve Wilson and Kevin Kilbane.
Colombia, ranked 16th in the world, come into this tournament 4 years on being the surprise package at the last World Cup. At the last World Cup they were the entertainers, attacking football with great celebrations. They qualified in 4th place in the South American qualifying finishing on 27 points from 18 games. They have a lot of very good players playing across Europe; Yerry Mina, Davinson Sanchez, Juan Cuadrado and Radamel Falcao, to name just a few. Their star player however is still James Rodriguez, who was the breakout star at the last world cup and despite not quite kicking on at Real Madrid, has had a better season at Bayern this year. He was also top goal scorer in qualifying for them.
Japan, ranked 61st in the world, have now reached their 6th consecutive World Cup since they 1st qualified back in France 1998. They were impressive is Asian qualifying finish ahead of Saudi Arabia and Australia to top their group. However, they are the underdog in Group H and I think most would view it as an achievement if they didn’t finish bottom. Genki Haraguchi of Fortuna Dusseldorf was their top goal scorer in qualifying with 4 goals. Yoshida, Honda, Kagawa and Okazaki are amongst their most notable players.
POLAND VS SENEGAL
Match kicks off at 16:00 (BST) on ITV 1. Coverage starts at 15:25 (BST). Mark Pougatch is joined by Henrik Larsson, Patrice Evra and Slaven Bilic, commentary from Jon Champion and Ally McCoist.
Poland come into this tournament ranked a surprising 8th in the world. They could be viewed as a potential dark horse but they are in such a well balanced group, that nobody is quite sure who is going through from their group. They were very good in the groups and finished 5 points above their closest challengers Denmark, with a record of 8 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. This is probably the best group of players they’ve had in a long time with many of their players playing in top leagues across Europe. However, Lewandowski is without a doubt their star player, he was the highest goal scorer across the whole of Europe in qualifying with 16 goals in 10 games. They also have other quality players like Zielinski to back Lewandowski up.
Senegal despite being in a tough group are being talked about as dark horses unlike Poland. They were unbeaten in qualifying, finishing on 14 points out of 6 games with Diafra Sakho finishing as the top goal scorer with 2 goals. I personally don’t see them as dark horses but they have a couple of players that can certainly cause teams problems. Sadio Mane has had a good season and is without a doubt their star attacking player and Koulibaly has had an excellent season for Napoli and he will be their defensive stalwart. Idrissa Gueye, Kouyate and Keita Balde are among other familiar players.
RUSSIA VS EGYPT
Match kicks off at 19:00 (BST) on BBC 1. Coverage starts at 18:30 (BST). Presented by Gary Lineker, commentary by Jonathan Pearce and Danny Murphy.
Bit of a different write up for this one given we’ve seen them play.
Was Russia’s first result down to how good they were or how bad Saudi Arabia were? I suspect it was more of the latter but I guess we’ll find out. Russia would probably be happy with a draw given Egypt will be their threat for 2nd place in the group and with that 5 goal buffer goal difference is less of a worry for them. Cheryshev surprised with his performance from the bench against Saudi Arabia and he along with Golovin will probably be key to their performance here.
Goalscorers so far:
Cheryshev (2), Gazinskiy (1), Dzyuba (1), Golovin (1).
Egypt were cruelly but deservedly robbed at the death in their first game vs Uruguay. They need at least a point from this game to give them a chance of going through in the final group game. That said, I think they really need to win, otherwise they will require a big win in their final group game and results to go their way. The big question is; will Salah play? Or is he even fit enough to play? I suspect they may have to chance him in this game at some point.
No Goalscorers so far.
Group A as it stands:
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