England vs Costa Rica
England play their last friendly this Thursday before heading off to Russia, with Costa Rica coming to town as part of their own preparations.
This final warm-up will be another good test for Gareth Southgate’s men, as well as being an opportunity for football fans in Leeds to see some real talent as Elland Road welcomes England’s World Cup 2018 hopefuls.
And anyone who remembers the 2014 World Cup will know this isn’t going to be a pushover.
Talking Points
Costa Rica came second to Mexico in the CONCACAF qualifiers for FIFA World Cup 2018 and they spanked Northern Ireland 3-0 last week. So they come into this match in good spirits. And Oscar Ramirez’ team has no fear of England, the only other meeting between the two ended up in a draw in the World Cup in Brazil four years ago.
Ramirez doesn’t have many stars to call on from Europe’s major leagues, but in Real Madrid keeper Keylor Navas, he has a star of great world stature. In England, Sunderland fans know defender Bryan Oviedo pretty well, and Arsenal’s Joel Campbell could feature up front after a season on loan at Real Betis. Another player featuring in La Liga is Depor’s Celso Borges, who has won 100 caps for the Ticos.
While you can count the well-known stars of Costa Rica on the fingers of one hand, as a team they make a useful outfit, and although Los Ticos lost to England’s World Cup group rivals, Tunisia, in their last trip away, they brushed Michael O Neill’s Northern Ireland away with some ease. Two headers, from Johan Venegas and Francisco Calvo sandwiched a Campbell strike as the young Gunner made a good case for his World Cup place.
It was a happy return to scoring form for Costa Rica, having hit the net in just two of their previous six games, but they are likely to find it tougher, against England, and their final warm-up opponents Belgium who they meet on Monday. If they acquit themselves well over the next few days that will give them hope of negotiating a tough Group E, containing Brazil, Switzerland and Serbia.
England have handed the Number 1 shirt to Jordan Pickford so it looks like he may have got the nod ahead of Jack Butland and Nick Pope. And so it could well be the Everton stopper tasked with keeping out Los Ticos on Thursday. He had a relatively quiet time in the 2-1 win over Nigeria at the weekend, particularly in a first half dominated by the Three Lions.
Captain Fantastic Harry Kane was on the mark again, and it’s looking increasingly like England’s hopes rest on the form of the Spurs hit man. That’s now nine games unbeaten for England, with six wins. Raheem Sterling has had his fair share of column inches recently, having to defend a gun tattoo on his right shooting leg, and the fact that his last England goal came as far back as 2015. SBOBET’s World Cup 2018 odds have Harry Kane as joint fourth favourite to top scorer at 14.00, alongside Cristiano Ronaldo no less, but Raheem Sterling is out at 101.00, little surprise given the Manchester City star’s international goal drought.
Is it worth a cheeky dollar?
Senior midfielder Jordan Henderson is available, having joined the squad following Liverpool’s Champions League final, alongside young club-mate Trent Alexander-Arnold.
History
Costa Rica will do well to improve on their fantastic performance at the 2014 World Cup. Landed in a group with Italy, Uruguay and England, they amazingly won it before going on to reach the quarter-finals.
Los Ticos earned a 0-0 draw with England and so are yet to taste defeat at the hands of the Three Lions. And, amazingly, they put the other two World Cup winners to the sword before dispatching Greece in the last 16. But they can’t live on former glories and must now show they are still be taken seriously.
England’s World Cup preparations are going along quite nicely, with wins over Nigeria and the Netherlands punctuated by a draw with Italy. And prior to that two goalless draws, with Germany and Brazil, show that Southgate’s team is well drilled enough to keep out the best in the world.
What are the Odds?
This could well be a tight contest but the Three Lions are expected to eventually prosper, SBOBET’s handicap betting offer has England at 1.96 with a -1.25 goal handicap, Costa Rica at identical odds of 1.96 with that +1.25 goal start.
England are in good form, but have drawn three of the last four on home soil and another stalemate is available at 4.40. Those three England draws yielded just two goals in total while, prior to beating Northern Ireland, Costa Rica’s previous three games yielded three. So under 2.5 goals at odds of 2.02 looks good value, while over 2.5 goals is at 1.88.
And take your pick on the most likely score-line, 1-0 at 5.60 or 2-0 at 5.80.
Disclaimer: Odds are correct at time of publish.
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