Senegal seek to seize last 16 spot tonight

MOSCOW. Senegal produced an impressive all-round display to see of Poland in their opening match and will be confident of adding a second win against their rivals from Asia this evening.
But having shocked ten-man Colombia to win their own first game, Japan are coming into this clash high in morale.

African pride
The Lions of Teranga were the only African side to win in the opening round and that win has put them in pole position to claim the top spot in Group H and advance to the next stage.
Japan also won, albeit with the help of a third minute red card and penalty, and so both teams are well placed to advance if they can avoid defeat here.
Although Senegal have some exciting attacking options on the face of it, with Keita Balde and Sadio Mane offering pace and quality down the wings, Aliou Cisse is a defensive manager.

Glance at record
That’s resulted in Senegal drawing 10 of their last 21 matches and being level at the break in 15 of those. Given there’s been little to split World Cup matches between Asian and African sides since 1990, with a W5-D6-L4 record narrowly in favour of the Asian teams.
Senegal picked up the most bookings. They picked up five in one of their warm-up friendlies against Croatia while they collected a couple in their opening match with Poland.
In contrast, Japan have picked up just nine in their last 10 internationals combined and their only one against Colombia was a 93rd minute booking for time wasting.

Three Lions momentum
England, will however, kick things off today, and it should be a relatively straightforward three points for the Three Lions.
Panama made Belgium sweat a bit in their opener, as they held out till half-time, but ultimately their lack of quality was decisive. They offered little threat going forward, and that shouldn’t surprise anyone who has glanced at their qualifying record where they conceded one more than they scored despite some weak competition.
England were unfortunate to concede a debatable penalty against Tunisia but were otherwise untroubled defensively and should get another easy ride at the back again, with the win to nil banker material.

Captain fantastic
Twelve of their last 14 competitive wins have come with a clean sheet attached and with seven by either 1-0 or 2-0 score.
Harry Kane was the hero against Tunisia and that brace leaves him with 10 goals in his last eight international appearances as he only failed to find the net in one of those games. Having found the opener in five of the seven in which he scored, Kane is favourite to repeat the trick with good reason.

In the day’s other fixture, Poland and Colombia, who were the pre-tournament favourites to make it out of Group H but having both lost we can expect them to throw caution to the wind and go in search of all three points here. Goals are rarely in short supply when Poland play as their 10 qualifiers averaged more than four goals.