Group C came to a close on Tuesday night as Colombia maintained their 100% record and Greece upset Ivory Coast to progress to the knock-out stages.
The likelihood of Japan reaching the next round of the World Cup was not impossible but extremely doubtful as they had to rely on a draw in the game between Greece and Ivory Coast and beat Colombia, but the South Americans proved to hard an opponents for the Japanese.
Juan Cuadrado opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 18 minutes, before Shinji Okazaki levelled just before half-time.
However, any expectation from the small amount of Japan fans in the crowd would vanish when Jackson Martinez scored an impressive double in the second half, followed by a striker from James Rodriguez, who scored Colombia’s ninth goal in three games.
Greece and Ivory Coast would then battle it out for a place in the next round and it would prove to be the European side who would advance thanks to goals from Andreas Samaris and a last minute penalty from Georgios Samaras.
Wilfried Bony scored for Ivory Coast but it would prove to be too little too late for the African side and they exited the competition.
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Colombia |
3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 2 | +7 | 9 |
 Greece |
3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | −2 | 4 |
 Ivory Coast |
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 3 |
 Japan |
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | −4 | 1 |