World Cup 2018: Why continent-spanning Group H is the tournament's very own game of rock, paper, scissors

What might be the most special thing about Group H is not necessarily its quality - which is varied - but its very composition

Time flies when you’re having fun, they say. One week down, just under four weeks to go and we’ve had a little glimpse of what each group has to offer until today, when Group H finally gets underway.

For these four teams it has been a long wait, a time spent training and plotting but also watching what the rest of the world has to offer. Consensus thus far is that no team has truly stood out, with perhaps the most impressive-looking team, Spain, not even managing to win their opening game.

But what might be the most special thing about Group H is not necessarily its quality - which is varied - but its very composition. The final quartet of teams to step out onto the biggest stage in world sport form the only group that is comprised of nations from four different confederations, multiplying the usual clash of cultures significantly.

Favourites to win it will be Colombia, one of the surprise packages in Brazil four years ago and possibly with better personnel than even then. Falcao was the best striker on the planet heading into the 2014 World Cup but a terrible injury in a cup game against fourth-tier opposition meant the Cafeteros losing their main man.

With great strife came a great discovery though. The talented playmaker James Rodriguez had been shunted to the left flank in Jose Pekerman’s 4-2-2-2 system but as coach Pek looked for answers following the hammer blow of losing his talisman striker, he adapted his system to make James more central to his plans - both philosophically and positionally.

Roaming as a number 10, the young playmaker had one of the great individual World Cup campaigns, easily being the best player in Brazil but pipped, ludicrously, to the Golden Ball award by an embarrassed Lionel Messi. Rodriguez made do with the Golden Boot and earned a huge-money move to Real Madrid but while the intervening four years haven’t been so kind to him on a personal level he has won the Champions League twice and remains an icon back home.

Now that Falcao has returned to the mix, two of Colombia’s most famous faces will link up on the grandest stage. They are rightly favourites for this group but face a troubling trio of teams in their bid to go through as winners.

Senegal are many analysts’ dark horses and a team boasting plenty of top-level attacking talent. Sadio Mané can be infuriating but he can also be unstoppable, as he was against Roma in the Champions League semi-final, and when you throw in the likes of Monaco forward Balde Keita and M’Baye Niang they have a forward line that will cause problems. The midfield is replete with familiar Premier League faces and in defence they boast one of Serie A’s best centre-backs, Kalidou Koulibaly. There is strength throughout and they may be the best African side at the tournament.

Poland offer something different to Colombia’s silky guile or Senegal’s thunder and lightning. Adam Nawalka’s side can be a little dull but they do have proven quality in every position group.

Trying to pick a winner in games between these three teams is a bit like rock, paper, scissors. Senegal are the latter, capable of slicing you open at any point while Poland are the rock, sturdy and uncompromising. Colombia are good on paper, but for all the plaudits rained upon them in Brazil they didn’t get to the business end of the competition. The time for that is now.

Senegal could go far in Russia (Getty)

Japan will have something to say about all that and remain a tricky opponent. But every team in this group are likely to have the AFC side pegged as the weakest outfit because of their bluntness in attack.

The Samarai Blue’s midfield is bursting with creativity and diminutive playmaker Takashi Inui is a name you might not know but should keep an eye on, but when the ever-willing but never-scoring Shinji Okazaki is leading the line it is likely to be a difficult campaign in front of goal and there are doubts over their ability to keep it tight enough for the odd goal to be decisive.

It is going to be a tight group and one of the most subtly fascinating, but the onus is on the teams in Group H to show that they are not just an exercise in intrigue but a launchpad for teams that can upset the apple cart.