Japan vs Colombia Predictions

Friday’s international friendly action features an interesting looking clash between Japan and Colombia in Yokohama. It’s expected to be an exciting game with plenty of chances at either end.

Japan come into the game looking to put the disappointment of losing the Asian Cup final to Qatar behind them. They had gone into said tournament as one of the favourites to win it and reached the final as expected, prior to falling to a shock 3-1 defeat to the surprise eventual winners.

Nonetheless, the side are still very clearly one of the real forces in Asia and all focus is now on the upcoming Copa America, which they will rather bizarrely be a part of. As such, this match against South American opposition serves as good preparation for the competition and having won 5 of their last 6 home friendlies whilst scoring an average of 3.16 goals a game, confidence will clearly be pretty high going into it.

Meanwhile, for Colombia the match marks the start of the Carlos Queiroz era and the new boss will also be looking to step up preparations, with the Copa America in mind. Regulars David Ospina, Santiago Arias, Juan Cuadrado and Juan Fernando Quintero are all absent from the squad available due to injury, but the Colombians have still brought a very strong looking group with them to contest the match.

Indeed, Los Cafeteros are one of South America’s strongest nations and have a supremely talented team that is a match for most opponents. The side were disappointed to lose to England on penalties at the round of 16 stage during the World Cup, but there’s been no hangover since, having won 3 of their last 4 friendlies and another strong performance is the target here once again.

Ultimately, we’re expecting a pretty even game here but not one short on action. The two are no strangers to each other, having met in each of the last World Cups and both matches were good watches, with Colombia winning 4-1 in 2014 and Japan 2-1 last year.

All things considered, we really like the looking backing both teams to score and feel it provides excellent value. Japan score lots of goals when on home soil, and Colombia pack plenty of firepower and have plunged home an average of 2 goals a game over a current 8 match unbeaten friendly streak. With the players on the pitch, a low scoring game just doesn’t look likely and we think it could well end up a 2-2 draw.