FIFA World Cup 2018: Costa Rica vs Serbia

Both teams were surely expecting this match to be their best chance of earning some much-needed points considering the rest of the group consisted of Brazil and a strong Switzerland side. Serbia are the lowest-ranked European team at the tournament (34th) and with Costa Rica ranked 23rd it was always likely to be a close battle.

Team News

Costa Rica lined up in their usual 5-4-1 formation that’s served them so well over the past few years, with the only real surprise in the lineup was the omission of Joel Campbell who had often started during qualifying. Serbia lined up in a 4-2-3-1 that is stacked with talent. The midfield trio of Matic, Milinkovic-Savic and Milivojević, in particular, looks impressive on paper and will surely be key to any Serbian success in the tournament.

Costa Rica’s Well Organised Defence

I was very impressed with the Costa Rican defensive performance against England in the recent friendly and they impressed me again against a very tough Serbian team. As you’d expect from a 5-4-1 formation, they were very hard to break down which was a credit to their fantastic organisation. When out of possession the Costa Rican midfield dropped deep in front of the defence forming 2 compact banks of players spread out across the pitch which Serbia struggled to break down. Marco Urena up top often looked an isolated figure as a result,