FIFA World Cup 2018: Poland vs Colombia

Both teams were hoping to bounce back from surprise losses in their opening games, with Poland losing 2-1 to Senegal and Colombia losing 2-1 to Japan that wasn’t helped by conceding a penalty and having a man sent off within the first three minutes. A victory would mean each team stands a chance of qualifying for the next round, whereas defeat would mean the loser is unable to reach the knock-outs.

Team-news

Poland made four changes from the team that lost to Senegal, with Thiago Cionek, Kamil Grosicki, Jakub Blaszczykowski and Arkadiusz Milik all dropped to the bench with Jan Bednarek, Jacek Goralski, Bartosz Bereszynski and Dawid Kownacki their replacements. Also notable was the switch from 4-2-3-1 to a 3-4-3 formation.

Colombia also made four changes including the enforced swap of Carlos Sanchez due to suspension after his red card against Japan, with Wilmar Barrios his replacement. Jefferson Lerma, Oscar Murillo and Jose Izquierdo also missed out, with Abel Aguilar, Yerry Mina coming in alongside Colombia’s main man James Rodriguez who made his first start of the tournament.

Poland’s 3-4-3

The main surprise when the lineups were announced was Poland’s change to a 3-4-3 formation  presumably done to try and get Lewandowski more involved as he had just 34 touches in the game against Senegal  with just four of those coming from inside the area (no shots in the area either). Below is a comparison of his touch locations, and we can see that this worked somewhat better, with a number of shots inside the area in good locations and a much better 57 touches.