Japan, Colombia, and Senegal will battle for 2 spots in the knockout stage at the World Cup — here's what each team needs to happen

Getty Images

Group H has featured some of the most surprising and exciting football of the 2018 World Cup thus far.

Heading into the final day of the group stage, three teams — Japan, Colombia, and Senegal — are all still in control of their destinies as they battle for one of the final two spots up for grabs in the knockout round.

With so much at stake for every team and simultaneous matches of Japan vs. Poland and Colombia vs. Senegal set for Thursday, Group H looks set to provide a thrilling finale to the group stage of the tournament.

Here is how each of the teams can advance to the knockout round:

Chances of advancing based on FiveThirtyEight's SPI ratings.

Here are the standings for Group H after two rounds.

FIFA

Group H is wide open right now, with Japan, Senegal, and Colombia all in control of their respective destinies heading into the final matches of the group stage. Only Poland — the favorite to win the group before the tournament began — has been eliminated, but Robert Lewandowski and company will still have the opportunity to play spoiler against Japan.

Japan

Dan Mullan/Getty Images

Chances to advance: 81%

Scenarios to advance:

• Japan advances if they win or draw with Poland
• If Japan loses to Poland, Japan can still advance if Senegal beats Colombia

Colombia

Julian Finney/Getty Images

Chances to advance: 61%

Scenarios to advance:

• Colombia advances with a win over Senegal
• If Colombia draws with Senegal, Colombia will still advance if Poland beats Japan

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

See Also:

• Diego Maradona was going nuts before Argentina's must-win World Cup match
• Here's why the US Men's team sucks at soccer
• One of the toughest World Cup groups is in chaos — How Argentina, Nigeria, and Iceland can all still qualify for the knockout round

SEE ALSO: Mexico fans went nuts in the midst of a 3-0 loss after learning that South Korea had saved their World Cup hopes