World Cup – Colombia-England

We are heading our attention to the Otkrytiye Arena in the city of Moscow, where Colombia meets England in a match from the 1/8-finals of the 2018 in Russia.

It’s always interesting when teams from South America and Europe meet at such a big competition. Especially when these are good teams, such as Colombia and England. According to the most pundits, England are a slight favourite here, but you will make a big mistake if you underrestimate Los Cafeteros too easily.

Colombia lost their first game in the group stages againts Japan, playing with 10 men in most of the time. But in the next two matches they showed their strenght, winning against Poland and Senegal. They didn’t allow their bad start to influence their campaign, showing everyone that they are much of a different team when playing with 11 players on the pitch. In their group Colombia scored 5 goals and conceded 2 – both against Japan.

England finished second in their group with 6 points, won against Tunisia and Panama. Gareth Southgate’s boys scored 8 goals in these two matches, before facing Belgium in their third game. Im this match both managers played with their reserve teams and Belgium won with 1-0.

Colombia’s manager Jose Pekerman have some serious problems before the game. James Rodriguez and Abel Aguilar are injured and most likely they will start from the bench.

England’s manager Gareth Southgate is lucky enough to have a full squad for the game. The Three Lions managed to avoid any suspensions or injuries in the group stages, which is a big plus before the start of the knockout phase. Plus, Southgate managed to rest his starters against Belgium, which will make the English team a little bit more fresh than its opponent.

So far in history Colombia have never managed to win against England. Their last encounter happened in 1998, when England beat Los Cafeteros with 2-0 at the World Cup in France.

Colombia are looking to at least repeat their performance from Brazil 2014, when they reached the 1/4-finals of the World Cup. The injuries of James and Aguilar are a huge hit for the team, but you can be sure that Jose Pekerman will do his best to replace them against the Brits.

England have an young and unexperienced team, but it doesn’t mean that they are not ready to impress at the World Cup. Many fans in the country feel that this team is special and ready for a glory. Indeed, this English side is very interesting and filled with talented players. It may be pretty young, but sometimes this might be an advantage.

These are our thoughts about the World Cup game from the 1/8-finals between Colombia and England. These two teams will give their all on the pitch in order to reach the next phase of the World Cup, but only one of them will make it. We expect to see some goals, so it might be an interesting one.