Japan are currently third in their World Cup group, having taken just one point from two games, and must beat Colombia in their final group game on Tuesday to have any hope of qualifying for the knockout stages (and the opportunity for fans to clean up the stadium after more than the standard three games)

Japan’s current position (table: BBC Sport)

Despite Colombia having proven themselves as formidable opponents with wins over the Ivory Coast and Greece, fans of Blue Samurai have no need to worry. A Japanese TV show has identified a pattern that means Colombia are almost certain to be defeated: They usually lose games played on Tuesdays.

In the past four years Colombia have only lost four competitive matches – against Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela and Uruguay – three of which were on Tuesdays

As if this wasn’t enough evidence of Japan’s inevitable victory, it’s been pointed out that Japan also tend to win on dates that end in four.

Japan beat Tunisia and Denmark on dates that ended in four

Although the result is all but confirmed, the two teams will play out the match simply as a formality at 5am on Wednesday (Japanese time).

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