Costa Rica vs Serbia Odds

Costa Rica vs Serbia World Cup Odds

This match kicks off at 13:00 local time on Sunday 17th June at the Samara Arena and will be the first time these two sides have faced each other in any way shape or form.

Costa Rica vs Serbia Prediction

This game has the potential to be high scoring if you look at both teams’ qualification record. Costa Rica’s games saw an average of 2.4 goals per game while Serbia’s averaged 3.0 goals per game. If you think this record will continue, look at the over 2.5 goals market at +165.

Every point is crucial in this group, which also houses Brazil and Switzerland, so neither side will want to slip up and gift their opponents three points. That said, Serbia are the stronger of the two sides and have the advantage of being used to the Russian climate. Serbia are +100 to win this fixture and that looks like another good bet to make. While Costa Rica are on a high following their 2014 World Cup, that excellent performance was likely a flash in the pan.

Costa Rica vs Serbia Key Bites

• Costa Rica is in terrible form having lost six of their previous eight matches
• Costa Rica’s biggest stars have almost all endured disappointing seasons
• Serbia have had a mixed warm-up for the World Cup finals
• Sergej Milinkovic-Savic is one of the most sought after players in the world at present
• Bryan Ruiz and Joel Campbell are Costa Rica’s best goal threat

Costa Rica may have reached the quarter finals of the 2014 World Cup but that will stand for nothing if they fail to progress from the group stage of the 2018 edition in Russia. Goals win you games in soccer matches and Costa Rica do not score enough and do not have that one magical player who could score five or six times in the competition.

Serbia have a strong nucleus to their side, with a vastly experienced, if a little slow, defense, so they should have more than enough in their locket to beat Costa Rica and get their 2018 World Cup campaign off to the best of starts.

Is now the time for Serbia to shine, now that all of the political unrest that has put football in the shadow is all but over. Perhaps it is, at least for this one off fixture.

Costa Rica vs Serbia Betting Trends

Costa Rica vs Serbia World Cup Preview

Nobody believed it was happening when Costa Rica navigated their way to the 2014 World Cup quarter-finals such was the immense achievement. The Ticos captured the spirit of the World Cup and were worthy quarter-finalists.

Lightning is unlikely to strike twice because this Costa Rican side is essentially the same squad as the 2014 World Cup only four years older and with several of its stars coming off the back of disappointing campaigns at club level.

With the exception of goalkeeper Keylor Navas, who won the Champions League with Real Madrid and was in great form, most of the Costa Rican squad has struggled this season. Defender Oscar Duarte so his season hindered by injuries, as has forward Joel Campbell, while Bryan Ruiz has not had the best of seasons with Sporting Lisbon.

Campbell and Ruiz are Costa Rica’s biggest goal threat and the side needs them to be firing on all cylinders if they stand a chance of getting out of the group.

Despite a lack of new players entering the Costa Rica squad, one thing going for them is the starting XI is settled and they all know each other inside out; nobody can accuse Costa Rica of not playing as a unit. The problem lies in they massively overachieved in 2014 and they do lack the star quality of some of the other teams so are likely to struggle, even in this group which is considered to be one of the weakest in the tournament.

The word around the Serbian press is that they are not confident that this team can progress to the Round of 16 due to several bizarre decisions by head coach Mladen Krstajic. The newly appointed coach’s first major decision was to strip Branislav Ivanovic of the captain’s armband and hand it to Aleksandr Kolorov with Nemanja Matic as his vice-captain.

Key defender Matija Nastasic didn’t make it into the squad due to a knee injury and has been replaced by Dusko Tosic of Besiktas who has been in great form for his club.

Defensive errors have been an issue for Serbia during qualifying for the World Cup and these need to be cut out. Almost all of the goals Serbia conceded were as a result of individual errors and could have easily have been prevented.

Serbia are much stronger when they are attacking. They play with Nemanja Matic and Luka Milivojevic in the center of the pitch as holding midfielders to give flying wingers Filip Kostic and Dusan Tadic the freedom to attack, while Lazio midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic is a name that is being touted as the next best thing in European football.

The Serbs have four forwards in their squad and none of them have set the world alight. Aleksandar Mitrovic enjoyed a brilliant second half of the season although he had to drop down a division from the Premier League to get a regular game. He’ll likely lead the line for Serbia at the World Cup.

Although both sides’ games averaged a lot of goals during qualifying, Costa Rica’s record at the World Cup does suggest a potential low scoring fixture. Four of the five Costa Rica games at the 2014 World Cup ended with under 2.5 goals with three of them under 1.5. Under 2.5 goals is priced at -180 with under 1.5 goals coming in at +170.

Serbia look to be too strong for a struggling Costa Rica side so look at the -110 at Bovada on a Serbia win.

Category : Betting Picks

Tag : Soccer , World cup