World Cup Qualification Playoffs: Costa Rica vs. New Zealand Preview, Odds, Prediction

Costa Rica and New Zealand play in the finals of the intercontinental World Cup playoffs in Qatar on Tuesday night. While on one side, Costa Ricans are more or less regular at the World Cup tournaments in this century, New Zealand is all but that. However, the Kiwis have an excellent chance to change that, but the task is pretty tough. We expect to see a fierce battle in Doha because the stakes are high, and for many players, this is a chance to mark their careers with participation in one unique World Cup.

Preview

Costa Rica (-166) was short of luck during their World Cup qualifiers, ending fourth in the CONCACAF group, only due to a weaker goal difference than the United States of America. They were three points behind Canada and Mexico, who were tied atop the assembly, which tells how close the battle was in North and Central America.

The Ticos have one loss and one draw in the past nine games, winning seven times, mostly due to superb defense. This unit posted six clean sheets throughout this stretch, and that is no wonder once they have Keylor Navas, one of the best goalkeepers in the last 20 years.

Overall, Costa Rica’s events are poor with excitement, and only two in the last ten have provided over 2.5 goals. The focus of this pretty experienced unit is on patience, and they can wait for 89 minutes before using one mistake committed by their rivals.

New Zealand (+433) won first place in Oceania’s part of the WC qualifiers. To be honest, and without any disrespect to all the other teams from that part of the world, that wasn’t such a tough task for the Kiwis, who were more than dominant throughout the quest.

Though once New Zealand leaves Oceania’s premises, they can’t provide any notable results and on a vast majority of the occasions, suffer losses. The most recent two events against Peru and Oman saw them being unable to score a single goal. A failure to the South Americans, 1-0, and a draw against Oman, 0-0, didn’t leave a good impression on the fans.

This team has a few individuals, among which Chris Wood is the most sounding, but other than that, New Zealand is a mediocre unit. They are stuck in a limbo between two levels, being too good for Oceania but way too easy for the rest of the world.

Latest News

Both Costa Rica and New Zealand are coming into this event with their best possible squads.

Head to Head Games

In 2007, these nations had a friendly international and Costa Rica won, 4-0.

Prediction

Costa Rican team is better than New Zealand in all aspects of play. The most important thing is that they play much tougher games against stronger rivals, unlike the Kiwis, who can’t score a goal against Oman, for instance. That is why we bet on Los Ticos and their third consecutive trip to the World Cup. The odds on that are -166 right now, which is completely satisfying.

Pick: Costa Rica -166

 

Here is the preview for other World Cup playoffs game between Australia and Peru.