Colombia team captain Teofilo Gutierrez. (Photo : Getty Images)
Group B's top two teams Colombia (0-0-2, 2 points) and Nigeria (2-0-0 , 6 points) face each other on August 10, Wednesday at the Arena Corinthians in São Paulo for a final group stage match in the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics men's football tournament.
The game is a must-win for Colombia if they want to advance to the next round while Nigeria has already qualified in the knockout stages after winning their first two games of the tournament.
Colombia, who was favored to reach at least the semifinals of the tourney during the pre-Olympic predictions, had been disappointing so far with both of their two matches ending with 2-2 score lines.
Their most recent match was a 2-2 draw with Japan in the second round last Sunday at the Arena da Amazônia in Manaus, as per the Evening Standard.
Team captain Teofilo Gutierrez, who at 31 years old is one of the most senior players in this summer's Games, scored again for Los Cafeteros as he broke the deadlock a minute before the hour mark of the match.
An own goal from Hiroki Fujiharu six minutes later doubled the lead for head coach Carlos Restrepo's side as they looked headed to their first win of the competitions.
However, two straight goals from the Japanese from Takuma Asano and Shoya Nakajima at the 67th and 74th minutes respectively leveled the match at 2-2, which eventually became the final count.
Meanwhile, Nigeria had been the surprise team of the Olympics' men's football games, defeating favored teams Japan and Sweden in their first two matches.
The team is coming off a 1-0 nipping of Sweden also in Manaus on Sunday to stay unbeaten and automatically advance in the quarterfinals, NBC Olympics reported.
AS Roma striker Umar Sadiq netted the winning goal for head coach Samson Siasia's squad at the 40th minute.
The Dream Team can afford to lose to Los Cafeteros in this match as they have already secured a place in the final eight and the top spot in Group B.
The predicted result is a 1-0 win for Colombia to grab the second quarterfinals slot in Group B.
Colombia starting lineup (4-3-1-2 formation): Bonilla; D. Balanta, Aguilar, Tesillo, Machado; Barrios, K. Balanta, Perez; Pabon; Gutierrez, Borja
Nigeria starting lineup (4-2-3-1 formation): Daniel; Shehu, Troost-Ekong, Sincere, Amuzie; Okechukwu, Usman; Ezekiel, Obi Mikel, Etebo; Umar
