Our football match prediction:
Japan
Match Time & Date:
28/06/2018
15:00 GMT
Prediction: 1-0
Poland
Japan kicked off their 2018 World Cup campaign in style, with the team beating ten-man Colombia 2-1. The Samurai Blue then shared the spoils with Senegal in their second group game and, as a result, they are only one point away from booking their place in the last 16 of the showpiece tournament. Japan are likely to adopt a cautious approach in Thursday’s football match and they are definitely capable of grabbing something from the game against the out-of-sorts Poles. Robert Lewandowski has yet to open his goal-scoring account at the FIFA World Cup finals and seeing that Adam Nawalka’s men have already suffered elimination in the group stages of the tournament, we are tempted to put our money on the Asian side. In their last meeting on the international stage back in 2002 (friendly game) Japan recorded a 2-0 win over Poland.
Highlighted Player (Yuya Osako):
Born in Kaseda, Kagoshima, Japan on May 18, 1990, Yuya Osako is a pacey attacker who plays for Bundesliga side Koln. Osako began his senior career at Kashima Antlers and he scored 40 goals in 139 appearances in the league for the club. The 182-cm-tall attacker then moved to Germany, signing a deal with 1860 Munchen and it has to be noted that he netted six goals in 15 appearances for the Lions. At the end of the 2013/2014 season Yuya Osako joined Koln and he has been playing for the Billy Goats ever since. The Japanese footballer scored seven goals in 30 appearances for Koln in the 2016/2017 Bundesliga campaign and he provided eight assists for his teammates in the process as well. Speaking of his international career, Yuya Osako made his debut for Japan national football team on September 10, 2013 in a 3-1 win over Ghana. Osako’s main position is a secondary striker, but he is capable of playing as both right winger and a centre-forward as well.
Highlighted Team (Poland):
Poland have recently emerged as one of Europe’s top sides, although they did enjoy some success during the 70’s and 80’s. The White Eagles impressed to achieve third-place finish at the 1974 and 1982 World Cup tournaments, while they also win the 1972 Olympics, albeit with an amateur side. Poland started showing improvement at the turn of the century, slowly becoming regular at major tournaments and they even co-hosted the Euro 2012 with Ukraine, but disappointed home fans to crash out in the group stage. The new generation, boasting players like Robert Lewandowski, Arkadiusz Milik, Lukas Piszczek, Grzegorz Krychowiak and Jakub Blaszczykowski, has the potential to help the national team return to old glory days, with some talented players also coming through the youth ranks. Zbigniew Boniek, Wlodzimierz Lubanski and Grzegorz Lato are some of the other players who have impressed playing for the national team, which has been playing their home games at the National Stadium in Warsaw.
