The following is a match centre with betting tips for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Group H fixture between Japan and Poland. The game kicks off on the 29th of June at 12:00 AM AEST. It will be broadcast live on SBS Viceland.
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Japan
- FIFA World Rank: 61
- Elo Rating: 46
- Qualifying: Winner of Group B with a 6-2-2 record in the AFC Third Round.
Squad:
- Coach: Akira Nishino
- Goalkeepers: Eiji Kawashima (Metz), Masaaki Higashiguchi (Gamba Osaka), Kosuke Nakamura (Kashiwa Reysol)
- Defenders: Yuto Nagatomo (Galatasaray), Tomoaki Makino (Urawa Reds), Wataru Endo (Urawa Reds), Maya Yoshida (Southampton), Hiroki Sakai (Marseille), Gotoku Sakai (Hamburg), Gen Shoji (Kashima Antlers), Naomichi Ueda (Kashima Antlers)
- Midfielders: Makoto Hasebe (Eintracht Frankfurt), Keisuke Honda (Pachuca), Takashi Inui (Eibar), Shinji Kagawa (Borussia Dortmund), Hotaru Yamaguchi (Cerezo Osaka), Genki Haraguchi (Fortuna Dusseldorf), Takashi Usami (Fortuna Dusseldorf), Gaku Shibasaki (Getafe), Ryot
- Forwards: Shinji Okazaki (Leicester), Yuya Osako (Werder Bremen), Yoshinori Muto (Mainz)
Recent results:
- Japan 2 – 2 Senegal
24/06/2018
FIFA World Cup, played in Russia - Colombia 1 – 2 Japan
19/06/2018
FIFA World Cup, played in Russia - Japan 4 – 2 Paraguay
12/06/2018
Friendly, played in Austria - Switzerland 2 – 0 Japan
08/06/2018
Friendly, played in Switzerland - Japan 0 – 2 Ghana
30/05/2018
Friendly, played in Japan - Ukraine 2 – 1 Japan
27/03/2018
Friendly, played in Belgium - Japan 1 – 1 Mali
23/03/2018
Friendly, played in Belgium - Japan 1 – 4 South Korea
16/12/2017
EAFF Championship, played in Japan - Japan 2 – 1 China
12/12/2017
EAFF Championship, played in Japan - Japan 1 – 0 Korea DPR
09/12/2017
EAFF Championship, played in Japan - Belgium 1 – 0 Japan
14/11/2017
Friendly, played in Belgium - Japan 1 – 3 Brazil
10/11/2017
Friendly, played in France
Statistics: (last four years):
- H2H Record: 29-12-12
- O/U record
- O/U 0.5 record: 52-1
- O/U 1.5 record: 47-6
- O/U 2.5 record: 30-23
- O/U 3.5 record: 17-36
- O/U 4.5 record: 9-44
- O/U 5.5 record: 6-47
- Wins
- Total wins: 29
- Won by 1 goal: 9
- Won by 2 goals: 7
- Won by 3 goals: 3
- Won by 4 goals: 5
- Won by 5 goals: 3
- Won by 5+ goals: 2
- Won to nil 20
- Losses
- Total losses: 12
- Lost by 1 goal: 6
- Lost by 2 goals: 4
- Lost by 3 goals: 1
- Lost by 4 goals: 1
- Lost by 5 goals: 0
- Lost by 5+ goals: 0
- Lost to nil 6
- Clean Sheets and BTTS
- Total Games: 53
- Clean Sheets: 21
- Held Scoreless: 7
- Both Teams Scored: 26
Poland
- FIFA World Rank: 8
- Elo Rating: 19
- Qualifying: Won Group E with a 8-1-1 record in the UEFA Confederation qualification.
Squad:
- Coach: Adam Nawałka
- Goalkeepers: Bartosz Bialkowski (Ipswich), Lukasz Fabianski (Swansea City), Wojciech Szczesny (Juventus)
- Defenders: Jan Bednarek (Southampton), Bartosz Bereszynski (Sampdoria), Thiago Cionek (SPAL), Kamil Glik (AS Monaco), Artur Jedrzejczyk (Legia Warszawa), Michal Pazdan (Legia Warszawa), Lukasz Piszczek (Borussia Dortmund)
- Midfielders: Jakub Blaszczykowski (VfL Wolfsburg), Jacek Goralski (Ludogorets Razgrad), Kamil Grosicki (Hull City), Grzegorz Krychowiak (West Bromwich Albion), Rafal Kurzawa (Gornik Zabrze), Karol Linetty (Sampdoria), Slawomir Peszko (Lechia Gdansk), Maciej Rybus (Lok
- Forwards: Dawid Kownacki (Sampdoria), Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich), Arkadiusz Milik (Napoli), Lukasz Teodorczyk (Anderlecht)
Recent results:
- Poland 0 – 3 Colombia
24/06/2018
FIFA World Cup, played in Russia - Poland 1 – 2 Senegal
19/06/2018
FIFA World Cup, played in Russia - Poland 4 – 0 Lithuania
12/06/2018
Friendly, played in Poland - Poland 2 – 2 Chile
08/06/2018
Friendly, played in Poland - Poland 3 – 2 South Korea
27/03/2018
Friendly, played in Poland - Poland 0 – 1 Nigeria
23/03/2018
Friendly, played in Poland - Poland 0 – 1 Mexico
13/11/2017
Friendly, played in Poland - Poland 0 – 0 Uruguay
10/11/2017
Friendly, played in Poland - Poland 4 – 2 Montenegro
08/10/2017
WC qualifiers, played in Poland - Armenia 1 – 6 Poland
05/10/2017
WC qualifiers, played in Armenia - Poland 3 – 0 Kazakhstan
04/09/2017
WC qualifiers, played in Poland - Denmark 4 – 0 Poland
01/09/2017
WC qualifiers, played in Denmark
Statistics: (last four years):
- H2H Record: 22-12-7
- O/U record
- O/U 0.5 record: 37-4
- O/U 1.5 record: 32-9
- O/U 2.5 record: 27-14
- O/U 3.5 record: 19-22
- O/U 4.5 record: 8-33
- O/U 5.5 record: 5-36
- Wins
- Total wins: 22
- Won by 1 goal: 8
- Won by 2 goals: 5
- Won by 3 goals: 2
- Won by 4 goals: 3
- Won by 5 goals: 2
- Won by 5+ goals: 2
- Won to nil 11
- Losses
- Total losses: 7
- Lost by 1 goal: 4
- Lost by 2 goals: 1
- Lost by 3 goals: 1
- Lost by 4 goals: 1
- Lost by 5 goals: 0
- Lost by 5+ goals: 0
- Lost to nil 4
- Clean Sheets and BTTS
- Total Games: 41
- Clean Sheets: 15
- Held Scoreless: 8
- Both Teams Scored: 22
Group H Table
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Japan | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 3 | +1 | 4 |
| 2 |  |
Senegal | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 3 | +1 | 4 |
| 3 |  |
Colombia | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | +2 | 3 |
| 4 |  |
Poland (E) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 | −4 | 0 |
(E) Eliminated
Japan sit above Senegal due to their superior fair play score: Japan -3, Senegal -5.
Commentary
Japan commenced their campaign with a shock 2-1 win over Colombia, who had a man sent off and conceded a penalty in the 3rd minute. Japan then showed good character to come from behind twice to draw Senegal 2-2. Under coach Akira Nishino, who only took over in April, Japan have steadily found their feet. After losing their first two friendlies by 2-0 scorelines, Japan beat Paraguay 4-2 in their final warm-up game before beating Colombia and drawing Senegal.
Despite being the seeded team in Group H, Poland are already eliminated from the tournament with a game to play. They will be bitterly disappointed given they had only lost 6 games out of the prior 46 under coach Adam Nawałka. Poland commenced their campaign with a 2-1 loss to Senegal. They were unable to hit their strides but there was an element of back luck with both goals conceded. Poland were then swatted aside 3-0 by Colombia in a performance to forget. An issue for Poland has been their inability to get star striker Robert Lewandowski involved. He scored 16 games in 10 qualifying games but has yet to score this tournament and he only scored once in Poland’s Euro 2016 campaign. Poland’s inability to provide him with service has nullified his threat. The other issue has been defence. Poland have kept just 2 clean sheets in their last 10 fixtures. They conceded 14 goals during qualifying, which is by far the most of any European side that qualified for the tournament. Poland’s lacklustre run means they have now gone 2-0-8 in their last 10 World Cup matches and they have failed to keep a single clean sheet during those games, whilst conceding 23 times.
Betting
bet365 odds (subject to change):
Compare the latest bookmaker odds for Japan vs. Poland
In some opposing statistics, Japan have won each of their two encounters against Poland, winning 5-0 in 1996 and 2-0 in 2002. However Japan have failed to score in four of their last five World Cup games against European opponents, in which they have gone 1-2-2. Perhaps now that the pressure is off, Poland can find some of the form that saw them romp through qualifying with an 8-1-1 record. They’ve have no luck so far this tournament while Japan have had some luck in their results. The last time Poland lost 3 consecutive games was in 2013. To date we’ve seen a number of teams (Saudi Arabia, Peru, Argentina) finish the Group stage with a flourish following disappointing results in their opening two matches. A draw wouldn’t surprise me either, given Japan’s resilience. It would see them progress to the Round of 16 and it would help Poland avoid three consecutive defeats for the first time in a World Cup.
Betting tip: back Poland +0.5 in the Asian handicap at 1.58 (Betfair)
Notes
- FIFA World rankings are from the 7th of June and sourced from https://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/men/index.html
- The World Football Elo Ratings are from the 11th of June and are based on the Elo rating system, developed by Dr. Arpad Elo. This system is used by the international chess federation to rate chess players and is considered by many to be a superior rating tool to the one used by FIFA. The ratings have been sourced from https://www.eloratings.net/.
- Squad lists sourced from http://www.skysports.com/football/news/12098/11374464/every-world-cup-squad-listed-argentina-brazil-russia-and-more