Costa - Serbia Football prediction

Costa Rica and Serbia face each other in a game for this phase of the World Cup. There is no record of previous direct confrontations between these two teams, so this will be their first confrontation.

Analysis of Costa Rica

The team had direct access to this group stage, so they will play their first game in this competition. In the last game he played, for Friendlies, lost with Belgium by (4-1). In the last 10 games Costa Rica has won 2, 2 draws and 6 losses. The team has conceded goals in 8 of the last 10 games, so there are defensive processes that need to be improved. In 15 games, he has never managed to score the score in the 8 games in which he suffered the first goal.

Costa Rica has been growing in recent times and in the previous World Cup, played in Brazil, managed to reach historically the quarterfinals. Even so, the Costa Ricans had a bitter taste in their mouths as they were eliminated on penalties by the Netherlands, a selection that fails the 2018 World Cup. At continental level, Costa Rica has 3 Gold Cup titles and 8 of the Central American Cup. Facing a stronger squad, coach Óscar Ramírez is expected to play in 5-3-2 privileging the defensive organization and the direct balls for the attack: Venegas and Ureña are very competent and effective in finishing. It is important to emphasize that Costa Rica places many men when it comes to defensive organization. Despite this, the Costa Rican team demonstrates several defensive and offensive fragilities. All players are available for this first game.

Eleven headline confirmed: K. Navas, G. González, C. Gamboa, J. Acosta, F. Calvo, Ó. Duarte, C. Borges, J. Venegas, D. Guzmán, M. Ureña, B. Ruiz.

Analysis of Serbia

The team makes its debut in this edition of the competition, since they did not have to play any of the qualifiers prior to this group stage. The team arrives at this meeting after a victory with Bolivia by (5-1). In the last 10 matches played for all competitions, Serbia won 6, drawn 1 and lost 3. Their attack has scored regularly, as they managed to make it 9 out of the last 10 matches. In 15 games, he only managed 1 turnaround in 6 games in which he suffered the first goal.

Serbia has been able to manufacture huge talent in recent years, however, it has not been able to make the most of these players, failing more recently access to the 2014 World Cup and Euro 2016. It is important to remember that this is Serbia's second participation in the Championships of the World as an independent country: the last one was in 2010. The Serbs' big victory in a World Cup was precisely against Germany in South Africa when they won 1-0: Jovanovic's goal. In this first game, coach Mladen Krstajic should play in the usual 4-2-3-1 privileging possession of the ball and successive attacks, mainly through the corridors: Tadic is a very fast and excellent player in the offensive transition. On the other hand, the great star of this selection is the defensive midfielder Matic, very important player in the tactical scheme of Serbia. For this game there are no weight absences to register.

Eleven confirmed holder: V. Stojković, N. Milenković, B. Ivanović, D. Tošić, A. Kolarov, D. Tadić, L. Milivojević, N. Matić, S. Milinković-Savić, A. Mitrović and A. Ljajić.