Colombia vs England: 2018 FIFA World Cup highlights, scores, blog

Match result

England have broken their long-standing penalty shootout curse, defeating Colombia 4-3 on spot kicks after a 1-1 draw at the end of extra-time.

It was a heated affair that looked like it could boil over at any moment. Santiago Arias was the only man penalised, the Colombian got a yellow card for head-butting on England’s Jordan Henderson, although Henderson did make the most of the contact.

The best chance of the game went to English skipper Harry Kane, who couldn’t direct the ball into an empty net with a header – although it was a tough angle.

England saw most of the ball and had numbers in attack and defence, but still struggled to break the Colombians down.

Colombia on the other hand couldn’t get into England’s box in the first half, all their efforts coming from distance.

The first half ended scoreless.

In the second half Colombian tempers boiled over – and they paid for it.

A tackle on Harry Kane in the box during a scuffle gifted England a penalty and Kane made no mistake from the spot to get his sixth World Cup goal.

It was looking like all Colombian hope was lost, but then in stoppage time a stunning Yerry Mina header from a corner saw Colombia drag the game into extra time.

It was end-to-end football in extra-time, but no one could find the breakthrough.

The game went to penalties, where England won it 4-3.

Full time

Colombia 1 (3)
England 1 (4)

Match preview

Colombia and England will be looking to book a place in the quarter-finals when they clash in Otkrytiye. Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match, starting from 4am (AEST).

Colombia had a rough start to their World Cup campaign, a red card within the first five minutes led to shock 2-1 defeat to Japan.

Despite losing a defender early, they nearly came away with a result.

They bounced back with a three-nil win over a struggling Poland side before needing a win to earn a spot in the round of 16.

The Colombians got their win and after Japan slipped up against Poland, they ended up topping their group.

Star man James Rodriguez, who lit up the World Cup in Brazil four years ago, came off the pitch after 30 minutes with a calf injury.

His scans have shown that he hasn’t got a tear and he still could feature in the game.

England’s momentum took a bit of a hit in their final group game, where they went down 1-nil against Belgium, but its been relatively smooth sailing up for them so far.

Striker Harry Kane currently leads the top scorer tally with five.

He scored both England’s goals against Tunisia before scoring a hat-trick in England’s 6-1 thrashing of Panama.

Kane has been a goal-scoring for the past few seasons and just missed out on the 2017/18 Premier League Golden Boot thanks to Mo Salah’s record-breaking season.

Raheem Sterling, on the other hand, has been struggling to score for his country despite a fantastic season at Manchester City which saw him feature heavily in their title win.

He is still chasing his first goal of the tournament.

Prediction
This is a game that could go either way. Both sides have pace going forward and prolific goal scorers on the pitch. However, Colombia have had a tougher route to the knockout stages and their defence is a bit more tested. We could very well see another ‘big team’ make their exit from the competition.

Colombia 2 – 1 England .

Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match, starting from 4am AEST.