Strong foundations look key to Colombia's challenge

Senegal 0
Colombia 1
Mina 74

Three things we learned...

1Colombia challenge is built on strong foundations
Colombia were widely praised for the quality of their attacking football after beating Poland 3-0 but their defenders were key to their success over Senegal.

Davinson Sanchez started the tournament with a bad error against Japan but he was a tower of strength against Senegal and produced a stunning last-ditch tackle to deny Sadio Mane in the first half.

Fellow central defender Yerry Mina also impressed and came up with the winning goal, his second of the tournament, powering home a header from Juan Quintero's corner.

2James injury is a major blow
Offensively, Colombia were nowhere near as good as they were in the Poland match as they struggled to come to terms with a first-half injury to James Rodriguez.

The 26-year-old top-scored at the last World Cup but he came into the tournament with a calf strain and doesn't seem to have fully recovered.

Without James the onus switched to Quintero to provide the creative spark.

But the River Plate midfielder was closely marshalled by Senegal and failed to have a major influence on the game.

3Senegal unlucky to bow out
Aliou Cisse opted for a 4-4-2 formation for a match his side didn't need to win and his players did him credit for much of the contest.

Senegal looked the more likely to score in the first half and goalkeeper Khadim N'Diaye had little to do apart from pick Mina's header out of the net.

After they fell behind they lacked the creativity required to open up a disciplined Colombia defence.

Cisse's team are better suited to playing counter-attacking football than chasing games, but they acquitted themselves well and can count themselves unlucky to have been eliminated.

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