Brazil v Costa Rica Preview and Prediction

On Friday afternoon, World Cup favourites Brazil will be looking to kick-start their Group E campaign, as the Selecao face Costa Rica in St Petersburg.

Brazil started the campaign as one of the hottest tickets in the competition. However, despite a bright start in their opener against Switzerland, Tite’s side could only manage a draw from the clash.

The draw was slightly surprising, but considering Switzerland are so tough to beat it was not a major shock. The draw also extended the Selecao’s unbeaten record to 12 games, having recorded eight wins.

The South American giants have built their recent good form on solid defensive displays, as they have kept clean sheets in nine of those 12 unbeaten games.

Costa Rica suffered a 1-0 opening game defeat against Serbia. The defeat ended a five-game unbeaten run in 90 minutes at the World Cup. The Central American side has a giant task on their hands matching their achievements of four years ago when they made the last eight in Brazil.

Top Football Bookmakers

The defeat against Serbia was unsurprising considering their poor form prior to the start of the competition. Oscar Ramirez’s team have now lost seven of their last nine international outings. Considering their opponents, it seems likely that will be eight defeats in ten games.

Prediction

Brazil and/over 2.5 goals