Match Preview - Colombia v England: Can the Three lions overcome this South American barrier to bring football closer to home?

2018 is a World Cup that keeps on giving and will hopefully give more for England fans. In their three opening games, England have been on a roller coaster ride in Russia. With a 91^stminute winner against Tunisia in their opening game and then a 6-1 thrashing of Panama, many England fans were starting to breathe those three words that The Lightning Seeds wrote in 1998. 

Fast forward a week later, there is a split consensus across the country with some listening to ‘Three Lions’ on their way to work and others breathing the typical English pessimism with their reason being that ‘we are English, we will find a way to cock it up’. This mood comes due to the loss England experienced in a charity-style match against Belgium’s 2s which has been mixed with the unpredictable eliminations of rivals Spain, Portugal, Argentina, and Germany. 

Predicting who teams can play next is that exercise that fans carryout to fill the void left by the 9pm game to the 3pm kick off the next day. It adds to the anticipation and excitement that comes with knockout football and has fuelled this ‘it’s coming home’ euphoria with fans understanding that if we can get past the Colombian barrier on Tuesday night we will either face Switzerland or Sweden in the quarters and most likely a tired Croatian side in the Semi-Finals if they get past the surprise package of Russia. 

Hence, losing to Belgium on Thursday may have been a blessing in disguise for England as it has taken the hype away from their performances against Tunisia and Panama but has handed them, beatable opponents. The game against Belgium highlighted how important certain individuals are for Gareth Southgate’s system, as the side without them was pallid. With eight players who started the first two games being rested, England fans will be hoping that their key players will be the difference between them and Colombia in Moscow. 

Colombia have also had a mixed experience of Russia, as in their opening game they lost unexpectedly to Japan and have been in an uphill battle to reach the last-16 ever since. Their talisman James Rodriguez hoppled off in their final game against Senegal and is in a race to be fit for tonight’s game. Many will be hoping he loses this race as if he starts it will impact on Colombia’s set up, as the Bayern Munich forward showed how creative he can be as he rolled the ball effortlessly from the left flank to the right and set up Juan Cuadrado in their match against Poland. 

Their striker Falcao will be hungry to redeem himself against English opposition having previously had embarrassing loan spells with Manchester United and Chelsea. Colombia will be looking to get in behind England wing-backs through Cuadrado and Juan Quintero as both have stepped up in the absence of James Rodriguez. Another player on Southgate’s radar will be young Barcelona center-back Yerry Mina who has proved to be a danger man from set pieces having already scored two goals despite not even starting their opening game against Japan. 

The Colombians are going into the match knowing that they are the underdogs and will be thriving at this prospect as it was this tag that got them to the Quarter-Finals in 2014. In reality, this game has a sense of equality about it as with the shock defeats of Germany and Spain already, England will be respecting Colombia like any other big team in this tournament. 

It will be the toughest test that Gareth Southgate and his men will have encountered and I fear that the closer it may drift to penalties, the more in danger England may be in – using Spain as a prime example. However, if England overcome this Colombian barrier the jokingly patriotic screams of ‘It’s coming home’ will transform into a national belief as they will become genuine contenders for a place in the final. We may be getting ahead of ourselves here, but look we are English it’s in our nature to build up an occasion to then get let down.