According to Fifa, Colombia are the fifth-best team in the world, which would surprise most people unfamiliar with the South American nation. 

What might well have escaped many football-lovers is that Colombia boast two of the most expensive players in the world in the shape of Radamel Falcao, a £51 million acquisition for AS Monaco, who also paid £38.5m for James Rodriguez.

This is not to suggest that Colombia are a two-man team, far from it. Many of their squad ply their trade among the top European teams, including Jackson Martinez of FC Porto, Carlos Bacca at Sevilla, as well as Cristian Zapata and Fredy Guarin who both play their regular football at the San Siro for AC Milan and Internazionale respectively.

Colombia can also lay claim to having the best defensive record in South American qualifying for the World Cup, where they finished a close second to Argentina, with the dazzling Falcao scoring nine of their 27 goals.

Such is the importance of Falcao, their chances in Brazil may well be linked to whether the Monaco star can recover in time from his cruciate ligament surgery in January. 

Another factor of concern for their Argentinian manager Jose Pekerman will be his squad’s lack of World Cup experience. Having last qualified in 1998, the 42-year-old reserve goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon will be the only player to have experienced the pressures of football’s biggest tournament. 

This will be Colombia’s fifth World Cup, having qualified for all three in the 1990s, reaching the quarter-finals at Italia 90.

However, they do hold the record for the biggest World Cup comeback, turning around a 4-0 scoreline to earn a 4-4 draw against the USSR in 1962.

Provided Falcao recovers in time, despite the lack of recent success Colombia should still be favourites to see off the rest of their group — an ageing Ivory Coast, a Greece side who are a shadow of their 2004 European Championship winning team and minnows Japan. 

Even without their prolific goalscorer Radamel Falcao, Colombia should still have enough talent and strength to navigate Group C but will surely fall to one of the tournament’s stronger teams in the last 16.