World Cup betting tips: Tuesday's preview including Colombia v Japan

For details of advised bookmakers and each-way terms, visit our transparent tipping record

Tuesday predictions

  • Colombia 1-1 Japan
  • Poland 1-1 Senegal
  • Russia 0-1 Egypt

Colombia v Japan (Group H, BBC One, 1300 BST)

Click the image, above, to read all you need to know about Japan

Group H is probably the toughest one to call at this year's World Cup, with all four teams surely believing they can qualify for the knockout stages.

Colombia are the favourites to top the standings at 13/8, with Japan least fancied of all to qualify.

We have seen some surprise results so far and this clash is another with potential. Japan have showed in the last couple of World Cups their technical quality and tireless work-rate, and they could get a positive result here to get their campaign off to a good start.

A draw is fancied here and at 14/5 it could be worth a small play, while Japan-draw on a double chance is available at 13/10.

Colombia have drawn five out of their last nine fixtures, with two of those coming in their pre-World Cup warm-up friendlies against Australia and Egypt, so a failure to finish off games has been a problem of late.

Japan will enjoy the underdogs tag and the likes of Shinji Okazaki and Shinji Kagawa can inspire them going forward.

A score draw is available at 4s, while a draw and under 2.5 total goals is 3/1, but just heading to the match market is advised.

Prediction: (George Pitts)

Best bet:

Opta Stats

  • Colombia are unbeaten against Japan (W2 D1). Their only previous World Cup encounter produced a 4-1 win for Colombia in June 2014; it was also Japan’s last game in the tournament.
  • Japan are winless against South American sides at the World Cup (D1 L3).
  • Colombia won four games in their last World Cup (2014), more than in their previous four appearances combined (3 wins in 13 games). 2014 is also the only time they have topped their group in the tournament.
  • None of Colombia’s 18 games at the World Cup have ended goalless. In fact, only the USA (33) and Austria (29) have played more games in the competition without ever registering a 0-0.
  • Japan have won only two of their last 11 World Cup games (D3 L6), against Cameroon and Denmark in June 2010. They’ve also won only one of their five opening games in the competition (D1 L3), against Cameroon in 2010.
  • Keisuke Honda has been directly involved in five of Japan’s six goals over the last two World Cups (3 goals, 2 assists).

Poland v Senegal (Group H, ITV, 1600 BST)

(Billy Cundall)

Best bet:

Opta Stats

  • Poland are unbeaten in their three games against African opposition at the World Cup (W1 D2). These three games have produced only one goal.
  • Poland have lost six of their last eight World Cup games (W2). They have also failed to keep a clean sheet in those last eight games, their last shut-out dating back to their 10 win against Portugal in 1986.
  • Poland have won only one of their seven opening games at the World Cup (D3 L3), a 3-2 win vs Argentina in 1974. In fact, they haven’t scored a single goal in their last five openers. o Senegal have qualified for their second World Cup, after their inaugural participation in 2002 where they reached the quarter-finals before being eliminated by Turkey.
  • Senegal were unbeaten in their only previous group phase appearance at the World Cup (W1 D2), which included a victory in the opening game against defending champions France (1-0).
  • Robert Lewandowski was the top scorer in the 2018 European World Cup qualifiers with 16 goals. He netted 57% of Poland’s goals (16 out of 28). The only other Pole to score more than one goal was Kamil Grosicki (3).
  • Diafra Sakho was the only Senegal player to score more than one goal in the third round of CAF qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup. Meanwhile, no player delivered more assists than Sadio Mané in that qualifying section (3).

Russia v Egypt (Group A, BBC One, 1900 BST)

(Billy Cundall)

Best bet:

Opta Stats

  • Russia’s 5-0 win against Saudi Arabia was the second biggest ever by a host nation in their opening match at a World Cup tournament, after Italy vs USA in 1934 (7-1).
  • Since the split up of the USSR, Russia have never reached the knockout stages of the World Cup in three appearances (1994, 2002, 2014). They have finished third in their group in each of those three editions.
  • Russia (5) have already scored more goals in this tournament than they did in both 2014 (2) and 2002 (4), their last two appearances at the World Cup
  • No African team has played as many World Cup games without winning a single one than Egypt (D2 L3).
  • Egypt have failed to score in each of their last three World Cup matches, last finding the net in the competition against Netherlands on 12/06/1990.
  • Mohamed Elneny completed 44 passes versus Uruguay on matchday one, the most by an Egyptian player in a World Cup game since 1966.
  • Russia’s Aleksandr Golovin has already been involved in three goals in this World Cup (1 goal, 2 assists). Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, the only player to have been involved in more goals for Russia in a single tournament was Oleg Salenko in 1994 (6 goals, 1 assist).

Posted at 1255 BST on 18/06/18.

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