The big favourite for the first place in Group H of the World Cup 2018 Colombia faces Japan in the city of Saransk. Let’s have a look at this clash in our vip soccer bets for today.

Colombia are a team to fear. Four years ago Los Cafeteros reached the 1/4-finals in Brazil, when they lost against the host of the competition after a close fight. Despite of losing this game, Nestor Pekerman’s team made an impression of a quality team, who can beat anyone anytime. One of the team’s stars James Rodriguez even became the topscorer of the tournament.

Now – four years later, Pekerman is still managing this team and he’s ready to inspire his players for another memorable performance. Los Cafeteros finished 4th in the South America region of the qualifiers. They won 27 points and finished with a record of 7 wins, 6 draws and 5 defeats. Colombia finished the qualifiers in a pretty bad shape, unable to win neither one of their last four matches. But lucky for them, they already had enough points to qualify for the World Cup. Everyone will be hoping that the team’s form is going to be better in Russia, of course.

Los Cafeteros won two of the five friendly games they played after the end of the qualifiers. The Colombian team enjoyed wins over China and France, made draws against Australia and Egypt and suffered one defeat against South Korea.

Just as always, there are some really good players in the Colombian team. The big star of the squad is Bayern Munich’s midfielder James Rodrigez, who was the World Cup top scorer four years ago. Monaco’s Radamel Falcao is the country’s top scorer of all time, while players like Juan Cuadrado and Davinson Sanchez contribute with a lot of quality as well.

Nestor Pekerman will lead for the second time Colombia at the World Cup. The former manager of Argentina is doing a very solid with this team and the results prove it. If he manages to repeat the performance from 2014, he will become one of the most successful coaches in the history of the Colombian national team.

Japan will be Colombia’s first opponent at the World Cup. Let’s talk about them a little bit, shall we?

For the Samurai this is going to be a sixth consecutive appearance at the World Cup. Their best performance is reaching the 1/8-finals, which happened twice – in 2002 and 2010. Four years ago they were stopped in the group stage, so you can be sure that they will try to do better this time.

Japan signed their tickets for the World Cup by winning Group B of the 3rd round of the qualifiers in Asia. The Samurai outperformed Australia and Saudi Arabia for the first place. Their final record showed 20 points and a record of 6 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats.

How the Japanese team did in the friendly games after the qualifiers? Akira Nishino’s players suffered three defeats, which was not a good sign before the World Cup. The Asian team lost against Ukraine, Ghana and Switzerland. They also made a draw against Mali. Surely they will hope that their results in Russia will be better.

Let’s say a few words for Akira Nishino as well. The 63-years old coach of Japan is a former international, having played 12 times for the national team. He has some rich experience at club level, managing teams like Nagoya Grampus, Vissel Kobe, Gamba Osaka and Kashiwa Reysol.

These are our vip soccer bets for the World Cup clash between Colombia and Japan.