Costa Rica vs Serbia
A World Cup 2018 – Group E
Date: Sunday, 17 June 2018
Kick-Off at 13:00 UK / 14:00 CET
Venue: Samara Arena, Samara.
Both Costa Rica and Serbia will have high set of expectations ahead of their opening fixture at the World Cup. The European outfit is set as the favourite on paper, but Los Ticos will be anything but an easy opposition here.
Costa Rica will be looking to build on the magnificent success from Brazil where they shockingly topped the group ahead of Italy, Uruguay and England. They went past Greece in the last 16 round after a penalty-shootout, but were unfortunate to be on the losing side of penalties in the quarterfinal when they fell by Netherlands.
The head coach Oscar Ramirez kept the core of the team his predecessor led towards the Word Cup quarter-final and he will likely use the well-tested 5-4-1 formation with five men securing team’s star man Keylor Navas on goal. Such formation did not, however, bring too much success against European heavyweights England and Belgium in the warm-up friendlies with Los Ticos conceding as many as six goals in back-to-back defeats.
Serbia have a very talented squad and it’s no surprise they made the return on the biggest stage after missing out on both EURO 2016 in France and World Cup 2014 in Brazil. They booked tickets for Russia by topping the qualifying group above the likes of Republic of Ireland, Wales and Austria.
In spite of such an overwhelming campaign, the head coach Slavoljub Muslin was fired right after the qualification process as it will be Mladen Krstajic who will lead the team in Russia. The former Schalke 04 center back tends to have a more defensive-minded approach given that Serbia’s back line proved out to be quite vulnerable under Muslin.
Missing players
Costa Rica don't have injured players before their opening game in Group E. All players are highly motivated for the match and they will play aggressive from the first minute.
On the other side Serbia also have almost all players fully fit for the match. Uros Spajic and Andrija Zivkovic are not fully fit and they are doubtful for the match. All other players are ready to play and they are eager to pick up all three points against Costa Rica.
Possible starting lineups
Costa Rica: Navas; Gamboa, Gonzalez, Acosta, Duarte, Oviedo; Bolanos, Guzman, Borges, Campbell; Urena
Serbia: Stojkovic; Rukavina, Ivanovic, Tosic, Kolarov; Matic, Milinkovic-Savic; Tadic, Ljajic, Kostic; Mitrovic
Costa Rica vs Serbia Prediction
What a great football game to start our betting on World Cup on Sunday. Match Costa Rica vs Serbia will be tough one and we expect a true football battle. Costa Rica are not in fine fettle, but this is big tournament and all players are highly motivated. For sure they will play strong and aggressive football, but they will try to score after fast counterattacks. Costa Rica know that Serbia have very bad goalkeeper and will try to score from a distance. On the other side Serbia have very talented players and they are closer to win. They will create many attacks thru wingers and will have many corners.
However our prediction and betting tips for the match Costa Rica vs Serbia Prediction: Serbia to win. We expect from Serbia to score at least two goals on this match, and expect from Aleksandar Mitrovic to score.
