England v Costa Rica Preview and Prediction

Date/Time: June 07^th 2018 8pm

On Thursday night, England host Costa Rica at Elland Road, in a World Cup preparation friendly.

These two teams met at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, a game that finished 0-0 and saw Costa Rica qualify for the knockout stages of the competition.

England heads into this game on the back of a 2-1 friendly defeat of Nigeria last Saturday. The Three Lions produced a vibrant first-half display against the Super Eagles before losing their rhythm in the second period.

The win over the African nation means that England are now nine matches unbeaten, having recorded six wins in the process.

Top Football Bookmakers

Costa Rica are appearing for the fourth time in five World Cup finals this summer. With familiar names such as Keylor Navas, Joel Campbell and Bryan Ruiz, Oscar Ramirez’s side will be nobody’s whipping boys in Russia. This game will be good preparation for the visitors who face European countries Switzerland and Serbia in Russia.

The visitors defeated Northern Ireland 3-0 in their last friendly game. However, Ramirez’s team have now won just two of their last eight international games.

Both of those wins have been against British teams, after a 1-0 win over Scotland in March. They will be hoping to complete a hat-trick of wins over British teams in Leeds.

Prediction

Home win and/or 2.5 goals scored