FIFA World Cup 2014 Predictions: Match #5 Colombia vs. Greece

Final Score

Colombia 3 Greece 0

Overview

The fifth match of the FIFA World Cup 2014 is going to be held between Colombia and Greece. This will be Colombia's fifth world cup while their best performance was in 1962 when it finished fourteenth. This is the third time Greece has qualified. The other two occasions were in 1994 and 2010.

Teams

Colombia: Colombia seems to be in high spirits to make a mark this time. It has a strong line of players who can do wonders practically in all the departments. The South American team is presently ranked eighth in the world. It defeated Jordan 3-0 in its last pre-world cup friendly. Colombia coach Jose Nestor Pekerman included midfielder Carlos Carbonero at the last moment before the world cup. While the team is sure to miss its best player Radamel Falcao who has been left out of the squad due to knee injury, it has got enough steam in Fredy Guarin and James Rodriguez among others to take the team forward.

Greece: Greece won only one match in their previous two appearances in 1994 and 2010. However, it tends to surprise strong teams with an uncanny ability to strike back. It stunned the world after winning the Euro 2004. However, the team may just fall short of a good striker, which it compensates with its strong defence. It will be extremely difficult to score against Greece. It conceded only one goal in its three pre-world cup friendlies against Portugal (0-0), Nigeria (0-0) and Bolivia (2-1). Its star striker Konstantinos Mitroglou can perform for his team. However, the only concern is that he had very few on-field appearances of late due to his sickness and injury.

Head to Head

These two teams played against each other only once before. Colombia scored 2 goals in the match and won it without conceding any.

Key Players

Colombia: Fredy Guarin & James Rodriguez

Greece: Georgios Samaras & Konstantinos Mitroglou

Date, Time & Venue

Brazil's time zone is UTC/GMT -3. The match starts at 1 pm (local time) on June 14, which means it is 2 am on June 15 in New South Wales, Australia. The match will be held at Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte.

Prediction

It will be difficult for Greece to stop Colombia at least twice in the match in spite of having a strong defence. Colombia will win it 2-0. The performance of Konstantinos Mitroglou will not make much difference in the score line.

Group Predictions

Group A, Group B, Group C, Group D, Group E, Group F, Group G & Group H

Reference: FIFA

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au