World Cup 2018, Colombia vs Japan Highlights: Japan Begin Campaign With A Win, Beat 10-Man Colombia 2-1

Japan on Tuesday registered a comfortable 2-1 win against 10-man Colombia in their opening Group H encounter of the tournament. Shinji Kagawa and Yuya Osako scored in the sixth and 72nd minute respectively to help Japan go pass their tough Colombian opponents. Although Colombia came up with an Juan Quintero’s equalizer in the 39th minute but the 10-man Colombian side could not hold Japan from scoring in the second half. James Rodriguez, who started on the bench came in at 58th minute for Colombia, but could not find the net. Earlier, in the first half, down to 10 men with six minutes into the game, Colombia came back strongly to level Japan 1-1. Intelligent free kick from Juan Quintero helped Colombia level after Carlos Sanchez was shown the red card in the 4th minute of the game for handling the ball inside the box. Kagawa netted the ball with ease and Japan were with the lead in the opening minutes of the game. But Colombians continued to attack with 10 players and put the Japanese under pressure. Earlier, James Rodriguez was left out of Colombia’s starting line-up for their opening World Cup match against Japan on Tuesday as the Brazil 2014 top scorer laboured with a calf strain. The Bayern Munich star started on the bench at the Mordovia Arena with Juan Quintero of River Plate filling Rodriguez’s attacking midfield role for the south Americans.