Costa Rica vs England Prediction - Will Los Ticos Continue Their Excellent Moment Against England?

Next Tuesday, the surprising Costa Rica will go head-to-head with England at Estádio Mineirão in Belo Horizonte on match that will mark the English farewell to the World Cup.

It is fair to say that Costa Rica have been the most impressive surprise of the tournament so far. Labelled as the weakest link of Group D, the Costa Rican side has managed to make a stand and they have already granted a place at the next stage of the competition. After defeating Uruguay on their first match, Costa Rica snatched a surprising win against Italy last Friday, leaving pundits and supporters absolutely dazzled. Los Ticos’ manager Jorge Luis Pinto prepared the match against the azzurri very carefully as it looked like his players were able to predict most of the Italians' attacking movements throughout the match. Costa Rica opted for a counter-attack strategy against a team that is known for their ferocious and deadly counter-attack movements and they were successful.

For the match against England, Jorge Luis Pinto might implement some changes in his team, since Costa Rica have already clinched their spot on the next round of the tournament and it might be a good idea to protect some of the team’s most important players, who have been submitted to a great deal of effort recently.

As for England, the match against Costa Rica will mark their goodbye to a nightmarish tournament, where they have so far failed to win a single game. After losing to Italy on their opening match, on a match during which the English Lions in fact put up a quality performance, they succumbed again during the group’s second match at the hands of Luis Suárez’s Uruguay. In truth, it was the Liverpool’s versatile forward who put an abrupt end to England’s dreams of walking through to the next round of the World Cup, by scoring Uruguay's both goals last Thursday.

England have a very good set of players, a quality mixture of young and experienced footballers that will certainly offer their supporters plenty reasons to smile in the near future; nevertheless and at least for now there still are plenty of things that reduce the team’s chances of success, particularly their defensive line, which proved to be fairly ineffective during the tournament.

Despite Costa Rica's fantastic moment, England are to be considered favourites for next Tuesday’s match as they want to leave the tournament with at least one win in their bags.

Costa Rica

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - WWDLW

England

Stats: W-1 L-2 D-2

Recent Form - LLDDW

Possible Line-ups

Costa Rica (4-3-3) -  Keylor Navas - Y. Tejeda - Giancarlo Gonzalez - Oscar Duarte - Michael Umana - Junior Diaz - Gamboa - Cubero - Bolaños - C. Borges

England (4-2-3-1) - Hart - Johnson - Smalling - Cahill - Shaw - Gerrard - Lampard - Lallana-  Barkley - Rooney - Lambert

Prediction: Costa Rica 1 England 2