Belgium – Costa Rica Soccer Prediction of the Day
The Red Devils fine-tune their preparation for the World Cup, measuring Costa Rica in an interesting international friendly match. Belgium achieved first place in Group H and, therefore, their direct qualification for the World Cup, after adding 9 wins and a draw in the 10 games of a magnificent qualifying phase in which ended with 43 goals in favor and 6 against. , which shows the level shown by the team of Roberto Martínez in this classification, which opened the competition with a clear victory in Cyprus by 0-3, before beating Bosnia-Herzegovina in the next match (4-0) . The third opponent was the weak selection of Gibraltar, which they crushed by 0-6. Already in the November break, the Red Devils won by 8-1 to Estonia, before giving an unexpected 1-1 draw against the Greeks last March. After the draw against Greece, the Belgian team regained the sensation with five wins by 0-2 in Estonia; 9-0 at home against Gibraltar; 1-2 in Greece, in Bosnia (3-4) and at home against Cyprus (4-0). Last November, Belgium lost 3 to Mexico, won 1-0 to Japan, thrashed Saudi Arabia (4-0) and drew 0-0 against Portugal.
Eleven Probable: Courtois – Meunier, Alderweireld, Kompany, Vertonghen – Dembele, Fellaini, Nainggolan – Hazard, De Bruyne, Lukaku.
Costa Rica decided not to send its best team to the last Gold Cup, focusing on the Hexagonal qualifying tournament for the World Cup in which they ended up being in second place behind Mexico. The team led by Óscar Ramírez ended up scoring 16 of the possible 30, but that was enough to be ahead of Panama and Honduras. The Ticos, who were leaders of Group 2, prior to the definitive hexagonal, winning 5 of the 6 games they played. They started with two consecutive victories over Haiti (1-0) and Panama (1-2). The draw in Jamaica was compensated by a thrashing against the Jamaicans in the Rommel Fernandez Stadium (3-0). Another triumph for the minimum (this time in Haiti), gave way to a 3-1 victory against the Panamanians that closed that phase. Already in the Hexagonal, the Ticos opened with two victories in Trinidad and Tobago (0-2) and United States (4-0) before falling Mexico (2-0) and draw in Honduras (1-1) and at home , against Panama (0-0). The victory against Trinidad and Tobago (2-1) was the preamble of the key victory in the United States (0-2), preamble of two draws to 1 against Mexico and Honduras (both at home) that gave them the pass before to fall in Panama in the last day (2-1).
Eleven Probable: Keylor Navas – Acosta, Gamboa, González, Calvo – Gutiérrez, Wallace, Campbell, Guzmán – Ruíz, Ureña.
The Red Devils close their set-up against the Ticos in a match that both teams will use as rehearsal of their debut in the World Cup. The Europeans are favorites against the Central American team, in which Keylor Navas is still his stronghold. The prediction is that Belgium will win and more than two goals will be scored despite the fact that neither of the two combined will risk injury to any player for the World Cup.
Prediction of the Day: Belgium & more 2.5 goals
Odds: 1.90
