Colombia W vs Jamaica W prediction: WORLD: World Cup Women – Play Offs betting tips on match 2023-08-07 08:00.
Two wins from their opening two FIFA Women’s World Cup (WWC) matches against South Korea and Germany secured Colombia’s progression into the last 16 with a game to spare, finishing as Group H winners despite their 1-0 defeat to Morocco in their final clash. It’s the second time Las Chicas have reached the final 16 of a WWC, eight years after suffering a 2-0 loss to the USA at the same stage in 2015.
The Americans won’t be standing in their way in 2023, and confidence should be high that they can progress further this time, particularly as that loss to Morocco was their only defeat from their last six outings (W3, D2). However, they’ve been handed a blow by the fact key defender Manuela Vanegas – who scored the stoppage-time winner against Germany – will miss the contest through suspension. Her strike in that game contributed to Colombia netting exactly two goals in four of their last six matches, but replicating that here against Jamaica looks unlikely to be an easy feat.
That’s because the Reggae Girlz have been a robust outfit to overcome so far in the tournament. Owing to sharing Group F with France and Brazil, Jamaica were widely tipped to head home early. Instead, they qualified second, not only collecting an impressive five points along the way but also finishing the group stage as the only nation that didn’t concede a single goal!
The Jamaicans are probably going to have to rely heavily on their defence again if they want to secure progression, particularly given the blunt nature of their own attacking performances. They’ve scored just one goal at this WWC and have managed to bag more than a single strike in just one of their last six matches, though that interestingly didn’t lead to success as they actually ended up on the wrong end of a 7-3 drubbing!
Key battle: Coming into the Round of 16 stage, only one player had made more defensive blocks than Colombia’s Leicy Santos (ten). Jamaica could really need Manchester City attacker Khadija Shaw – who was sent off in their opening game against France – to find the form that saw her register seven goal contributions (G4, A3) across her final five WSL matches of last season.
Hot stat: Colombia have scored the opening goal in just three of their ten WWC matches, but have a 100% winning record when doing so.