Despite James injury Colombia clinch Group H as fair play dooms Senegal

Kasey Keller and Ross Dyer share their thoughts on Colombia's 1-0 win which saw Senegal leave the World Cup on Fair Play points. (3:33)

SAMARA, Russia -- Three thoughts on Colombia's 1-0 win vs. Senegal in Group H at the World Cup.

Colombia have turned their World Cup campaign around to win Group H but the bigger story here was about how it was lost.

When Yerry Mina scored the winning goal, towering to convert a superb header from Juan Quintero's corner, it meant Senegal had an identical record to that of Japan in terms of points, goal difference, goals scored and conceded and head-to-head results.

The next tiebreaker was fair play and, on account of two yellow cards picked up in added time at the end of their draw with the Japanese on Sunday, Senegal will leave Russia early. No World Cup group has ever been decided this way before and questions might be asked as to how effective this is as a way of separating sides of clear merit.

Neither side could afford to put a foot wrong and, accordingly, both were content to sit back in the early stages. Colombia fired the first broadside when Quintero's free kick was turned away to his right by Khadim Ndiaye, but they had their hearts in their mouths after 18 minutes.

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