Another day. Another match. Another humdinger! Japan kicked off their World Cup campaign in a glorious fashion as they triumphed over Los Cafeteros with a marginal scoreline of 2-1.
In the early minutes of the game, there was controversial drama as Carlos Sanchez was handed the first red card of the tournament for stopping a goal-bound shot of Shinji Kagawa with a raised arm in the box.
A cool-headed Shinji Kagawa opened the scoring for The Blue Samurai by effortlessly converting the penalty. With Colombia down to 10 men, Juan Fernando Quintero then eased tensions by equalising with a cheeky goal as he shot an under-the-wall free-kick.
In the second half, with 73 minutes on the clock, Yuya Osako gave Japan the lead with his match-winning header from the corner.
Here’s how Twitter reacted to the encounter.
https://twitter.com/LiveMirors/status/1009138363956330498
Full time at the Mordovia Arena: Colombia 1 – 2 Japan.#WorldCup #COL #JPN #COLJPN pic.twitter.com/3g0FbSnmkg
— Football Tweet (@Football__Tweet) June 19, 2018
https://twitter.com/9GAGFootball/status/1009072585437564928
https://twitter.com/9GAGFootball/status/1009072254901194752