Day: June 18, 2018

After a long wait, Poland and Senegal get their World Cup campaign on the way and they are both in one of the unpredictable groups in the competition so every game counts.

Poland made a walk of their qualifying campaign, collecting maximum points in eight of ten games. They lost just once – 4-0 to Denmark, but that showed that they have a weaker side to their team- their defence.

Their warm-up friendlies have actually gone almost to plan. They beat Lithuania 4-0 in their last game so they would be coming to the World Cup in confident mood, they had previously drawn 2-2 with Chile and their performance wasn’t very poor there either.

The Poles have, however, kept just a single clean sheet in their last 5 games, and they would be without Kamil Gilik for this opening game which makes them even weaker at the back.

Senegal are making just their second ever appearance at the World Cup after their wonderful showing at Korea/Japan 2002. While they do not have the surprise element like 16 years ago, they come into this competition with a good squad.

Sadio Mane is their main man, but he has support from Keita Balde and Moussa Sow upfront, while Kalidou Koulibaly would be leading their defence and they have a wealth of Premier League experience in their midfield.

The Senegalese come into their first game following a 2-0 win over South Korea, and they performed well in their previous 2-1 loss to Croatia.

Four ago it was a stunning tournament for Colombia and James Rodriguez in particular. The South Americans stormed to the quarterfinals after beating Uruguay in the round of 16, but the host proved to be too much for them and they exited at the last 8.

James Rodriguez scored a stunning goal against Uruguay after another beauty against Japan, he earned a move to Real Madrid that summer and their fans would be hoping he performs that special in this year’s edition too.

The Colombians played just a single warm-up game before this competition, although they won, their lack of competitive fixtures may prove decisive. They have not lost any of their last four games leading up to this match.

The Japanese have been busy preparing for this competition and even played their final warm-up game on Tuesday. That game ended in a win for them against Paraguay, however, prior to that they had lost two on the bounce against Switzerland and Ghana.

The Asians have four losses from their last six games, and they have only won against Australia among all the teams to have qualified for the World Cup, losing to Brazil, Belgium, South Korea, among others.

It’s been two years since England’s humiliating exit at Euro 2016 at the hands of little-known Iceland. Gareth Southgate leads a new team of exciting youngsters and experienced professionals to this year’s World Cup and the Three Lions would be looking to banish the demons of two years ago by going far in this competition.

England’s opponent may be less fancied than Spain or Portugal but they cannot afford to underrate them. The north Africans almost held Spain to a goalless draw in their last warm-up game before Iago Aspas popped up with a late winner for the Spaniards.

That game shows how resilient the Tunisians are, as a matter of fact, that was their first loss in over a year, they have won five and drawn four of their other nine games during that period of time and they also went through their qualifying campaign unbeaten, so they are no pushovers.

England should be prepared to deal with the threats of the former African champions anyway. The Three Lions defeated Costa Rica and Nigeria in preparation for this World Cup. They have not lost any of their last ten games, and the last time they lost to a team outside the top ten ranked FIFA teams, was at Euro 2016.