Japan VS Costa Rica – WC Match #25

Costa Rica kept their hopes alive after losing their first game. In their 2nd game, they beat Japan to remain in the fight. Japan after a wonderful win against Germany was not able to take Costa Rica down. Now Japan will next play Spain who is in top form. 

Match Breakdown

Japan looked to maintain its winning ways and it could have qualified for the round of 16 but Costa Rica had other plans for them. It was a nice game of football. The lack of quality in the final third was the problem that the Japanese were not able to score. They attempted 13 shots out of which 3 were in the target. And they were not enough to pass Keylor Navas to the back of the net. In the first half, Japan was good at attacking but a lethal striker was needed to finish the job. 

Costa Rica was on the back foot from the start. They let Japan take the possession and they were comfortable with defending the ball. In the first half, they had 0 shots on target but they didn’t let Japan have one. In the second half, both teams looked to open the scoring. Costa Rica managed to attempt 4 shots of which 1 was on target but it was enough to score a goal. In the 81st minute, Fuller scored the only goal of the game and stole 3 points for Costa Rica. 

Group E giants will clash tonight and after their match, things will be pretty clear. Right now Germany is in trouble.  There will be a goal difference at the end as Germany is beaten by 2 goals while Spain has beaten Costa Rica by 7 goals in the first round of group stages. Let’s see what happens in the next matches of group E.