Colombia turn on the style to eliminate poor Poles

After Senegal and Japan drew 2-2 earlier, both sides needed to avoid defeat to keep their Round of 16 hopes alive. However, the first half lacked attacking intent.

In fact, the physios did more work, tending to Michal Pazdan, David Ospina, Yerry Mina in just the opening 10 minutes.

None were serious injuries but there was one sorry sight when Abel Aguilar was stretched off, forcing the South American side into an early change.

It was a real battle but Colombia enjoyed more possession and looked far superior. Although they would have to wait until the 40th minute for their only shot on target.

One was all they needed though to break the deadlock, with Yerry Mina meeting a cross from James Rodriguez with his head, guiding it into the back of the net to give his country a 1-0 lead at half-time.

After the break, the game followed a similar theme, with Poland looking particularly toothless up front despite possessing Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski.

His was their only spark and did force Ospina into a couple of good saves but none which really suggested the European side were going to cause much threat.

They didn't and their defence couldn't deal with the fluid attack of Juan Quintero, Radamel Falco, Juan Cuadrado and Rodriguez which linked up effortlessly to add to Poland's woes. 

Quintero put Falcao through on goal with a sublime pass which the Monaco striker coolly slotted into the far corner to make it 2-0 and effectively seal the victory.

Their third then came just five minutes later. Rodriguez won possession on the left and fired a fantastic diagonal pass to find Cuadrado in tonnes of space. He charged at goal and calmly fired to the right of Wojciech Szczesny, finding the back of the net.

Despite a great late save by Ospina to deny Lewandowski, Poland had no answers and fell to a 3-0 defeat which saw them eliminated from this summer's tournament with one game still to play.

As for Colombia, the win hands them a lifeline but they still need to get a result against Senegal in their final group fixture to stand any chance of progressing to the Round of 16.

 

June 24, 2018