Hey guys! Welcome to the second of today’s knockout previews! Remember to check out our reviews of last night’s action here and here! Read on for our thoughts on two teams that not many predicted would reach this far!
Costa Rica:
How they’ve done so far:
Costa Rica 3 – 1 Uruguay, Costa Rica 1 – 0 Italy, Costa Rica 0 – 0 England.
What they’ve done well so far:
Well they’ve exceeded expectations, that’s for sure! Much like Chile, they’re a team who work really hard for each other and move really well as a unit on both ends of the pitch and with Bryan Ruiz and Joel Campbell spearheading the attack they’ve been pretty decent in front of goal so far too! They’re absolutely tireless too which works well in these conditions as they’re able to go more or less flat-out until the final whistle.
Where they’ve struggled so far:
They start matches incredibly slowly, it’s not that they don’t have the stamina for it or anything; they just seem incredibly slow at getting into their stride. With the exception of the England game where Costa Rica didn’t really turn up at all (probably because they’d already qualified), they started very slowly against the Uruguayans and equally so against the Italians. Once they got it together in those games though they were a class above their opposition.
Key Player:
I’m sticking with my pick for the group stages and going with Keylor Navas. He, surprisingly, hasn’t had too many chances to show his quality yet and the Costa Ricans will be happy about that because it means they haven’t had much defending to do but in the knockout rounds where, if they progress, they could easily face the offensively brilliant Holland in the next round they’re going to be thankful of having such a top quality goalkeeper between the sticks.
Will they progress?:
Well I said they wouldn’t progress from the groups so what do I know? I am now a believer in the Costa Rican cause! What they’ve done in their group definitely suggests that they can do well in this fixture so I’m going to say they’ll go through at Greece’s expense.
Greece:
How they’ve done so far:
Greece 0 – 3 Colombia, Greece 0 – 0 Japan, Greece 2 – 1 Ivory Coast.
What they’ve done well so far:
Like Costa Rica, I don’t think anyone would have been surprised if Greece had gone out at the group stages. In their last game against Ivory Coast they showed that they can grind out results when they need to and that’s definitely a quality that will be needed in the knockout rounds.
Where they’ve struggled so far:
They’ve lacked creativity; just missing some attacking flare at times. Ignore the result with Colombia for a minute because everyone in Group C was trounced by them so that’s immaterial but against Japan they didn’t really have much going on offensively and against the Ivory Coast their winning goal came from the spot and for the rest of the match they had chances but didn’t look like converting them too often. This is knockout football they’re playing now; when the chances come they have to be taken!
Key Player:
I’m going to go for two guys here: Georgios Samaras and Konstantinos Mitroglou. The former has featured heavily for the Greeks so far but only has one goal and that was from the spot to seal qualification for the knockout rounds. The latter has only featured as a substitute thus far but rest assured, if Greece are to find their feet offensively, these two are going to be of paramount importance!
Will they progress?:
Again, I was wrong about these guys in the group stages, but I don’t think I’ll be wrong this time. Costa Rica will just have too much for them in my opinion! Greece will need to up their game considerably from the group stages if they’re going to prove me wrong!