Who? Switzerland - Costa Rica
Where? Nizhny Novgorod Stadium, Nizhny Novgorod
When? June 27, 20:00 (CET local time)
Switzerland (Yossi Medina)
Switzerland, a nice and peaceful country, was in the middle of political controversy suddenly. The goal celebrations of Xhaka and Shaqiri followed by full discussion whether they both should be banned. In the end, FIFA decided that they will be fined by 5000 Swiss Francs each.
They were not the only players to be fined. A third player joined, celebrate and was punished. Stephan Lichtsteiner joined his friends and showed his solidarity. In an action made by a captain, a leader of the team. With 102 caps, Lichtsteiner is worth to be the one who holds this title and now he hopes that he will do the best in his last World Cup.
Switzerland finds themselves once again playing against a CONCACAF team in the last matchday. Four years ago they defeated Honduras 3:0 in the last game, as they began the day with one point less from the second place. This time Switzerland will enjoy an interesting advantage, as now they are in the second place with one point more than Serbia.
With an another chance for reaching the round of 16, Switzerland can be satisfied from their performance until now. Now they need to be concentrate enough in order to prevent any slip against Costa Rica.
Costa Rica (Omri Tancman)
After two matches, Costa Rica lost its chance to qualify and now all that remains for the veterans of Costa Rica is a solid performance against Switzerland. This might not be easy at all since Costa Rica are in very bad form recently. Costa Rica have won only three of their last fourteen matches in all competitions. Moreover, they have lost eight of their last ten matches. Furthermore, they didn't score in six of their last nine appearances including their last two games in the World Cup and did not even manage a shot on target against Brazil.
It seems that there is no one to blame since the whole team is very weak. Nevertheless, Bryan Ruiz, Costa Rica's captain and forward is not performing at the same level as in the previous World Cup. While in Brazil Ruiz shone and led the Costa Ricans to the quarter finals, in this campaign in Russia, Ruiz wasn't able to lead his troops to scoring ability. According to Ruiz, as he stated prior to the game against Brazil, the third game should be a win for Costa Rica.
The Costa Ricans proved already some of their defensive ability, as they managed to withstand the Brazilian pressure for 90 minutes. In order to win, Costa Rica has to score. Much of this responsibility lies on Ruiz's shoulder.
Canceled or delayed flight? Check your compensation with BabaGol's new partner - AirHelp. AirHelp is here to enforce your passenger rights and make sure you get your rightful compensation. Try it out HERE.