FIFA World Cup
World Cup 2018: Costa Rica vs Serbia Preview
Four years ago Costa Rica was the Cinderella story of the World Cup in Brazil having reached the quarterfinals. Costa Rica vs Serbia comes from Samara, Russia with referee Senegalese Malang Diedhiou.
Current Form:
Los Ticos are coming a magnificent campaign in Brazil 2014 where they escaped a group with Italy, England and Uruguay. However, they have not been up to par in their recent international friendlies. They will base most of their offense on their veteran players and recall a 4-0 win against USA in the CONCACAF qualifiers.
On the other hand, Serbia returns to a World Cup since Germany 2010. However, their campaign was rather poor despite beating Germany 1-0 in their second match. Despite all this, the Serbians are enthusiast to breakthrough in this World Cup.
Players To Watch:
The Real Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas is perhaps the greatest asset for the Ticos. However, this team will not be able to solely firm their hopes in their defense and instead focus on their attack with Celso Borges and iconic captain Bryan Ruiz.
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic has been regarded by clubs such as Manchester United and Juventus while with Italian side Lazio. The midfielder has netted 15 goals in 48 appearances for the Roma-base club.
Possible Lineups:
Costa Rica: Keylor Navas; Giancarlo Gonzalez, Oscar Duarte, Johnny Acosta, Cristian Gamboa, Bryan Oviedo; David Guzman, Celso Borges, Bryan Ruiz, Christian Bolanos; Marco Urena
Serbia: Vladimir Stojkovic; Branislav Ivanovic, Nikola Milenkovic, Dusko Tosic, Aleksandar Kolarov; Nemanja Matic, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Dusan Tadic, Adem Ljajic, Filip Kostic; Aleksandar Mitrovic
Match Prediction:
Costa Rica still remains a slight-favor over Serbia for their past performance in Brazil. However, their most recent performance does not merit them a hopeful possibility. Although Serbia comes from a good performance against Bolivia. However, I am not convinced this will play heavily in their match on Sunday.
Prediction: Costa Rica 1 – 1 Serbia
