Uruguay vs Costa Rica Prediction - Will Los Ticos Defy Uruguay's Favouritism?

Next Saturday, Uruguay will go head-to-head with Costa Rica at Estádio Castelão in Fortaleza for the opening match of Group D.

Uruguay experienced some unexpected difficulties during the CONMEBOL qualification round and they were forced to dispute a playoff match with Jordan before grating a ticket to the Brazil’s World Cup.

The 2011 Copa America winners managed to impress the World of football not long ago when, led by the charismatic Oscar Tabarez, they obtained the 4th place at the South African World Cup. Although, plenty has changed at South American football over the last couple of years and the rise of Chile, Colombia and even Ecuador left Uruguay in a somewhat delicate position.

Uruguay played three friendly matches this year in order to prepare for the World Cup tournament and did not lose any of them. Two wins against Northern Ireland and Slovenia and one draw against Austria was the score for Oscar Tabarez’s side recent clashes, as the team seems to be recovering some of their past strength and enthusiasm.

For their opening match and maybe for the three group stage clashes, Oscar Tabarez will not be able to count on his most important player, Liverpool's versatile forward Luis Suárez, who suffered a knee injury while training with his Uruguayan teammates at the end of May. The absence from Suárez will certainly force the Uruguayan manager to reinvent his frontline's usual duo, maybe placing Stuani or Forlán lurking behind Edinson Cavani.

As for Costa Rica, the match against Uruguay will mark their return to a World Cup tournament after they failed to qualify for the 2010 South Africa competition. Costa Rica’s recent performances have been far from enthusiastic as they only managed to win one of their last six matches. Their last win was back in March when they defeated an also fragilized Paraguay side, but they didn't manage to win both of their World Cup preparation matches.

Jorge Luis Pinto’s boys finished second on the CONCACAF qualification round, four points behind the USA and with five wins in ten matches. Costa Rica revealed some inconsistency on their performances but they have still managed to secure the second place after beating Mexico on the last group match back in October.

For next Saturday’s match against Uruguay, the Costa Rican manager will not be able to rely on the contribution of a very important player, Real Salt Lake's forward Álvaro Sabório, who will surely miss the entire tournament due to injury.

Despite their last year's less impressive qualification campaign and despite the absence of Luis Suárez, Uruguay are firm favourites to win the match against Costa Rica, who certainly do not have what is necessary to beat their South American opponents.

Uruguay

Stats: W-3 L-0 D-2

Recent Form - WWDDW

Costa Rica

Stats: W-1 L-3 D-1

Recent Form - DLWLL

Possible Line-ups

Uruguay (4-4-2) - Muslera - M. Pereira - Lugano - Godin - Cáceres - Arevalo - Gargano - C. Rodríguez - G. Ramírez - Forlán - Cavani

Costa Rica (4-3-3) -  Keylor Navas - Heiner Mora - Giancarlo Gonzalez - Oscar Duarte - Michael Umana - Junior Diaz - M. Urena - Cubero - Joel Campbell - C. Borges - Bryan Ruiz

Prediction: Uruguay 2 Costa Rica 0