Colombia send Robert Lewandowki and Poland home

Colombia has sent Poland packing from the 2018 FIFA World Cup with a 3-0 win in a Group H game at the Kazan Arena on Sunday.

The loss signals the end of Poland’s hopes for qualification into the knock out round after two losses from their opening two matches.

The South Americans created the first chance of the game when James Rodriguez found himself in space on the edge of the box, but his hard struck shot was beautifully saved by the Polish keeper.

On the half-hour mark, Colombia suffered a bit of a setback when Abel Aguilar had to leave the field wounded and was substituted by Mateus Uribe.

Even so, Colombia continued to push forward and took the lead five minutes before the break when a Yerry Mina met a cross from Rodriguez was a strong header to make it 1-0.

The Europeans tried to find an equalizer before halftime, but they did not really feature in the first half as they went into the break trailing by a goal.

Poland began the second half a much better side and nearly leveled matter on the hour mark when Robert Lewandowski showed great skill inside the box to bring a lofted cross under control before seeing his 14-yard effort well-stopped by the Colombian goalkeeper.

Colombia, though, doubled their lead ten minutes later when Radamel Falcao showed great strength to win the ball on the edge of the box before firing into the corner of the net.

In the 75th minute, the game was over as a contest when Rodriguez played Radamel Falcao through on goal and he made no mistake with just the Polish keeper to beat and made it 3-0.

Poland tried to fight their way back into the match and threw players forward in the final 15 minutes, but they were unable to find any consolation as the game ended 3-0 in favor of the Colombians.

Colombia are now on three points in Group H, placed third behind Japan and Senegal who have four points apiece.

This article was most recently revised and updated 3 years ago