Costa Rica vs Greece Prediction - Will Los Ticos Extend Their Fantastic Moment Against Greece?

Next Sunday, the surprising Costa Rica will measure forces with Greece at Arena Pernambuco in Recife on what will be the second Round of 16 match of the day.

After forcing England to a draw last Tuesday, Costa Rica proved they are no pushovers. Los Ticos are probably the most impressive surprise of the tournament so far and no one really knows how far they can go in the competition.

When Costa Rica defeated Uruguay for their first World Cup match, no one would certainly have imagined that they would finish at the top of their group and that they would be one of the culprits for sending the former World Champions Italy home earlier.

Costa Rica’s game style is fairly simple but effective at the same time. The team’s manager Jorge Luis Pinto implemented a 5-4-1 “aggressive” style into his team with a hard working defensive line and fairly skilled midfielders that offer a quality support to Joel Campbell, their lone ranger up in the front. The experience and mastery of the midfielders Bryan Ruiz and Cristian Bolãnos, the safe hands from their goalkeeper Keylor Navas and the irreverence from the versatile forward Joel Campbell offer the team an excellent balance and, in fact, give them some favouritism for the upcoming match against Greece.

As for Greece, the match against Costa Rica will be a good opportunity for them to show that they deserve to be at the this stage of the competition. After a bumpy start against Colombia, the Greek team snatched a draw with just ten men on the second match against Japan and clinched a last minute 2-1 win thanks to a penalty goal by Samaras against Ivory Coast. With that dramatic win against the African Elephants, Greece granted their place at the Round of 16 as they finished second on their group behind the super powerful Colombia.

Pundits label Fernando Santos’ Greece game style as dull and highly conservative and they are probably right to make such assumption. Nevertheless, that is the way the Portuguese manager's teams usually play, with a 4-3-3 rigid system based on quick counter-attacks to take advantage of the opponents' mistakes.

For the match against Costa Rica, Fernando Santos will already be able to count on the contribution of the team’s captain and influential midfielder Katsouranis, who missed the last match due to suspension.

Despite the Greek team's higher experience at this level of demand, Costa Rica have to be considered favourites for next Sunday’s match, mainly because of their fantastic campaign so far.

Costa Rica

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

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Greece

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form – WDLWD

Possible Line-ups

Costa Rica (4-3-3) -  Keylor Navas - Y. Tejeda - Giancarlo Gonzalez - Oscar Duarte - Michael Umana - Junior Diaz - Gamboa - B. Ruiz - Bolaños - Joel Campbell

Greece (4-3-3) -  Karnezis - Torosidis - Sokratis - Vyntra - Holebas - Tziolis- Kone - Katsouranis - Samaris - Salpingidis - Samaras

Prediction: Costa Rica 1 Greece 0