Saudi Arabia vs Colombia

Saudi Arabia’s first warm-up fixture ahead of their trip to Qatar for the upcoming World Cup finals pits them against underperforming CONMEBOL side Colombia at the Estadio Enrique Roca de Murcia.

A narrow 1-0 home triumph over Australia on the final Asian qualifying day helped Saudi Arabia advance to Qatar as Group B winners. However, the Arabians are not enjoying the best of times, as they’ve only won once in their last three outings (D1, L1). Low scoring has been a common theme in Saudi Arabia’s four international games in 2022, as all four have featured under 2.5 goals, with three seeing one side fail to score. Goals have been at a premium for the ‘Green Falcons’ in recent months, as they’ve netted one or fewer in their last nine outings. Still, they’ve established some balance at the back, conceding under 1.5 goals in eight of those nine matches.

On the other hand, Colombia experienced an utterly underwhelming 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign, finishing sixth in the CONMEBOL qualifying group. After failing to reach the most prominent international tournament for the first time since 2010, the Colombians need a fresh start. Back-to-back wins ‘to nil’ over Bolivia and Venezuela to cap off their frustrating qualifying campaign may provide new head coach Nelson Lorenzo with a clean slate. That’s certainly a noticeable improvement on a run of consecutive 1-0 defeats beforehand, as ‘Los Cafeteros’ look to win three successive matches for the first time since 2019/20. But it’s worth noting that Colombia had failed to score in three away games in succession (D1, L2) before beating Venezuela 1-0 last time out.