Colombia Vs Japan: The Most Significant Talking Points From The Match As Japan Made History

Colombia Vs Japan: The Most Significant Talking Points From The Match As Japan Made History

FIFA World Cup Group H | Colombia Vs Japan Japan started their FIFA World Cup 2018 campaign with a victory over Colombia. The Colombia Vs Japan match made history yesterday when Japan became the first Asian side to beat a South American team in the FIFA World Cups. The Colombia Vs Japan match was the Group H opener, the last group of the FIFA World Cup. With no Group of Death in the tournament this year, we can call this group as the Group of Death as all four teams look pretty even. The tie ended 2-1 with more than a few unexpected things happening in the match. Japan has made a case for themselves with a 2-1 victory over Colombia in what is a very even group. Here are some of the most significant talking points from the Colombia Vs Japan match.

The First Red Card of 2018 FIFA World Cup :-

Colombia received the first red card of the 2018 FIFA World Cup when Carlos Sanchez handled the ball in the 3^rd minute inside the penalty area to stop a goal bound shot from Shinji Kagawa. The Colombian player was instantly shown the red card by the match official, Damir Skomina. Davinson failed to deal with the bouncing ball and in the process allowed Osako to burst clear and fire off that initial shot which Ospina prevented from going in only to find a rebound shot saved by Carlos Sanchez. But as things turned out, he was soon picking the ball out of his net as Shinji Kagawa made no mistake in planting his penalty down the middle of the goal, giving Japan the lead. VAR was not required as the referee does his job quite well with the red card. The red card was the second fastest in FIFA World Cup with the fastest being the first-minute send-off for Jose Batista for Uruguay in the FIFA World Cup 1986.

The Cheeky Free-Kick :-

Juan Quintero scored an interesting free-kick when he smashed the ball down the ground into the left bottom corner of the Japanese goal. Kawashima, the Japanese number 1 was taken by surprise and the whole of the ball had crossed the whole of the line when he managed to get his hands to the ball.

Juan Quintero's cheeky freekick goal vs Japan #COLJPN #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/AYTDPsXMac

— Referinho (@Referinho) June 19, 2018

It was the clever thinking of Quintero that got Colombia to level the scores having been a man down inside the first 3 minutes. This made the Colombians believe that they could go on to win the game after the 39^th minute goal.

The Japan Half Of The Match :-

The Japanese purely dominated the second half of the Colombia Vs Japan match taking advantage of an extra man. The Colombians hardly managed to keep the ball in the opposition half. Japan continued their dominance which became more prominent after Honda came onto the pitch.

GOAL! Colombia 1-2 Japan (Osaka)
Japan are back in front!
Inui’s shot is blocked in front and goes out for a corner.
It’s whipped in and Osaka climbs highest to head home off the post.
David Ospina not covered himself in glory, there.
2-1 Japan! pic.twitter.com/6wEW4OMv2j

— Lilian Chan (@bestgug) June 19, 2018

In the 73^rd minute, Osaka leaped over everyone to score with his head from a well taken corner from Honda. Colombia started to play long balls in the closing stages of the Colombia Vs Japan match but they were well defended by the Japanese defenders making sure that they went on to win the game and also making history by becoming the first team from Asia to beat a South American team in the World Cups.