World Cup 2018: Colombia finish top of Group H as Senegal crash out on fair play to Japan

Senegal are out of the World Cup and, in an unprecedented stroke of ill fortune, they head home after receiving two fewer yellow cards than Japan. Their players slumped to the ground at what turned out be the end of a campaign that could hardly have been decided more cruelly. Both they and Colombia had looked sure to go through from Group H after Poland took the lead in Volgograd and, in truth, that would probably have been the best outcome for this World Cup. But Yerry Mina’s header epitomised Colombia’s determination not to sit on a draw and meant the only tie-breaker separating Senegal and the Japanese was fair play, while South American prospects receive another perk, Africa will now not have a single representative in the round of 16.

Both managers had predicted an intense encounter at the outset and there was certainly nothing laid-back about the atmosphere inside Samara Arena, which was faintly reminiscent of a Colombia home match in Barranquilla. Senegal’s pockets of fans were outnumbered, possibly by a factor of hundreds; their players were whistled whenever they kept the ball for any length of time early on and a sweltering afternoon would clearly call for cool heads.

So it boded ill when a rash challenge from Kalidou Koulibaly on Radamel Falcao gave Colombia their first sight of goal. Juan Quintero went under the wall with a free-kick to outfox Japan two games ago; this time he whipped up, round and over only to see Khadim Ndiaye tip wide.

That was by no means the only instance of over-zealousness from Senegal but the next tackle to cause concern came inside the Colombia area. Eighteen minutes had passed with the Teranga Lions threatening little but when a quick transition sent Sadio Mane running clear the yellow hordes held their breath. Mane hesitated slightly and Davinson Sanchez recovered to snick the ball away with what, from a distance, appeared a clean tackle. Referee Milorad Mazic thought otherwise, to widespread bemusement, but an obvious injustice was averted when VAR was deployed to change his mind. It had been a fine challenge and, while the technology has its considerable drawbacks, this was the latest example of its effective deployment at Russia 2018.

It did, at least, make the blow that followed a little more bearable. James Rodriguez had been struggling for several minutes when, on the half-hour, his number was held up and Luis Muriel readied. James beat his fists on the grass in clear frustration and slowly walked off; it did not look promising for the 2014 golden boot winner’s future participation in the tournament but the main concern, for now, was that this would be a question to ask by the end.

For the rest of the half Senegal, compact at the back and happy to throw men forward from wide when possession had been won, were the better side without offering direct threat. Colombia had been disappointingly short of speed and devilment, failing to record a legitimate touch inside the Senegal box. Something, surely, had to change.

Their increased need made for an open, but fraught and frayed, start to the second period. The on-pitch produce was little more than a series of wasted counters from Senegal but, off it, everything changed just before the hour. That was when Jan Bednarek broke the deadlock for Poland in Volgograd, and a stadium increasingly fraught with tension became a Latin American cacophony once more.

So imagine the din when Mina, flinging his 6ft 5in frame at Quintero’s corner, thundered the ball past Ndiaye at precisely the stage when both sides might have decided, in French and Danish fashion, to call it a day. Senegal had just made a substitution, Moussa Wague replacing Youssouf Sabaly, but it was Cheikhou Kouyate who could not reach Mina in time to prevent his second goal in two games.

Now Senegal had to fling players forward, with all the dispatches from elsewhere suggesting their group rivals had downed tools. David Ospina beat away Mbaye Niang’s effort and Ismaila Sarr fluffed a right-footed volley when found in space. The dying stages had that impossible tense, classic World Cup feel we have come to be familiar with in the past fortnight, but it was Colombia whose nerves could explode into joy.