A World Cup group like the one we have in Group H is exactly why this tournament is followed so religiously around the world, even in countries who didn’t qualify. These are matchups that would not normally occur under any other circumstances than a World Cup, and extremely entertaining ones.

There is no other way four teams from four different continents with a lot of exciting individual players to watch would get to play a round robin like this on the biggest stage of all. On top of it, this draw didn’t put any obvious favourites or minnows into this group.

Colombia, the 2014 upstarts who made it through the always rigorous South American qualifying process and are poised for another deep run.

Senegal, with an exciting style of play and their eccentric manager Aliou Cissé, who has grabbed the world’s attention from the touchline.

Poland have been tipped by many as a dark horse to make a deep run in the tournament, and it’s hard to blame them with arguably the best striker in the tournament in Robert Lewandowski, their captain who scored 16 goals in 10 qualifying matches.

And finally the Asian representatives of the group, Japan. Probably the weakest of the four on paper, but the Japanese still boast a pair of Premier League players and five more who played their club football in the Bundesliga during the most recent campaign.

Of the six group stage games, none of them had a David vs. Goliath look. But if any of them looked a little tipped in one direction, it would have been the opener between Colombia and Japan in Saransk.

Four years earlier the two met in Cuiabá on the final matchday of Group C, a game Japan needed to win to have any chance of progressing out of the group stage. The match was in the balance at 1-1 going into the interval, but the Colombians ran out as 4-1 winners. A second-half brace from Jackson Martinez and a delightful finish from James Rodriguez sealing a nine-point group stage for Colombia, and a miserable tournament for the Japanese.

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It only took 166 seconds for the most exciting group at the 2018 World Cup to get the drama going.

The time on the clock when Colombia’s Carlos Sánchez was sent off for a handball in the penalty area to deny a goal-bound Shinji Kagawa shot was 2:46. One of the hotly-tipped favourites to make a run into the latter stages of the tournament ended up at a huge disadvantage, and the “weakest” team in the group managed to get revenge, and three points, in their sights.

Kagawa tucked away the ensuing spot kick, and things looked very straightforward for Japan. Up a goal and a man, with plenty of time to extend their goal difference.

But this is Group H, and there’s no such thing as a straightforward result.

Colombia pushed hard despite being down a man, and found their equaliser before halftime. Juan Quintero’s free-kick aided a little bit by goal-line technology, drew the Colombians level.

FC Köln’s Yuya Osako, and more specifically his head, ended up being the match winner to give Japan just their second World Cup win since they hosted the finals in 2002. In one flick of his head, the group of chaos took another turn.

Speaking of those 2002 finals, the best story out of that tournament finally returned to the World Cup in Moscow against Poland in Group H’s other match day one fixture. And it too was a match featuring one piece of chaos after another.

Thiago Cionek entered the World Cup with zero goals for his country, and he finally broke his duck in Poland’s opening match, but there was no celebrations for him, only commiserations.

His first goal for Poland was an own goal to deflect Senegal into the lead. Senegal doubled their advantage on a moment of madness, between controversy and a calamitous error at the back for Poland. Maybe M’Baye Niang shouldn’t have been allowed back on the pitch at the moment he was following his injury.

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Perhaps Jan Bednarek should have committed further to scooping up the loose ball rather than the fatal pause he took in the build up to the goal. Was charging off his line the right move for the Polish goalkeeper? There are a hundred different ways to interpret what ended up being the winning goal for Senegal. Who’s to say how the Poles should have played the situation?

After all, it’s Group H. Anything could have happened. Everything did happen.

Matchday two will pit the two winners against each other, as well as the two losers. It’ll be Japan trying to continue their surprising ride by all but punching a ticket into the knockout stage, but they’ll have another difficult mountain to climb against Senegal.

Colombia and Poland will be fighting for their lives. The leading scorer of the 2014 World Cup will face the leading scorer of 2018 World Cup qualifying. The Kazan fixture will probably be the first opportunity for the Colombians to play with 11 men, but their margin for error is gone now. It’s going to be a chaotic second matchday for the four teams as they scramble to get into good position for the frantic final day of games on June 28th.

On day one we saw the second earliest red card in World Cup history, goal-line technology, the first ever win for an Asian team against a South American one at a World Cup, a cruel own goal, a controversial Senegal winner, and one exciting manager.

Everybody strap in. The most fascinating group of this World Cup burst out of the box with a frenzy.

Welcome to Group H.