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Colombia wins to top group as Senegal goes out on fair play tiebreaker

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Despite their opening game struggles, Colombia managed Group H just fine to emerge as winners.

Colombia topped Senegal, 1-0, on Thursday to win the group and advance to the knockout stage despite an opening match loss to Japan. With the result, Colombia will face either England or Belgium in the next round while Senegal is eliminated, finishing behind Japan on fair play following a tie on points, goal differential and goals scored.

After 74 scoreless minutes, Colombia finally broke through on a goal from Yerry Mina, who skied about the Senegal defense on a corner kick. The defender headed the ball straight into the ground, bouncing a shot into the roof of the net to give Colombia the lead.

The first half saw Senegal dictate a majority of the play despite remaining cautiously disciplined in their attacking pushes. Colombia, meanwhile, was rocked by injuries as James Rodriguez was knocked out of the match early with a thigh issue.

VAR did come into play in the first half, though, as Sadio Mane was tackled by Davinson Sanchez in the box. Originally seen as a penalty, VAR deemed the tackle clean, leaving the first half scoreless.

Colombia will face England or Belgium on July 3.

MAN OF THE MATCH

He wasn’t always perfect in defense, but Yerry Mina scored the goal when needed to lift Colombia to victory.

MOMENT OF THE MATCH

Mina’s goal was the moment that lifted Colombia to the knockout stages while eliminating Senegal.

MATCH TO FORGET

Sadio Mane was held relatively quiet on the day as Senegal lacked the final piece of the puzzle to score the goal needed.

Comments

  1. I remain convinced that UEFA qualifying is not as difficult as many “experts” say. The seeding process usually leaves one clear favorite, a couple competitive teams and 2-4 other countries like San Marino. There are a couple groups where there are two traditional powers. Italy had that in its group this year, came in second, and had to go to the playoff where it lost to Sweden – who has shown it deserves its place. Italy – like the US and the Netherlands – was just lacking something in the qualifiers.

    That being said – are you looking forward to 48 teams in upcoming WC?

    Reply
    • I’m totally against 48 teams. 3 team groups — Only two guaranteed games per team?? Not to mention heavily increased likelihood of collusion on the final day (impossible to mitigate). It’s going to be terrible. Frankly, I’d rather they just go to 64 and add another knockout round (or second group stage).

      Reply
    • You can alway do what I do when shitty teams are playing: Don’t Watch! Try it, it works!
      Besides, I doubt the rest of the world stops what they’re doing to watch Altidore, Bradley and Bobby Wood play.

      Reply
      • Hopefully we never have to watch Altidote Bradley and Wood again. If we do I have doubts regarding 2022 qualifying.

  2. someone please tell me again why italy wasn’t in the tournament. group h was just silly without a world class team to lead the group.

    Reply
    • Colombia world class. They only lost to Japan cause they had a red card within the first 5 mins. They blew out Poland and beat Senegal.

      Reply

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