Costa Rica vs Serbia,World Cup 2018 FIFA : scores, highlights, result
Day four of the 2018 World Cup kicks off with Serbia taking on Costa Rica in Samara, a city on the Volga River. Both teams will be looking to pick up as many points as possible before they have to face Brazil later in the tournament.
Los Ticos will have a lot to make up for after they were beaten in both of their World Cup warm-up matches, despite having quite a wonderful run four years ago in Brazil.
Serbia’s squad is looking strong at the moment, especially after Aleksandar Mitrovic scored a hat-trick in their final warm-up match. Considering Mladen Krstajić’s men haven’t reached the knock-out phase in 20 years, Costa Rica might have a slight advantage.
Match Lineups
Costa Rica
1 Keylor Navas
3 Giancarlo González
6 Óscar Duarte
2 Johnny Acosta
20 David Guzmán
5 Celso Borges
15 Francisco Calvo
16 Cristian Gamboa
21 Marco Ureña
11 Johan Venegas
10 Bryan Ruiz
Celso Borges, starting for Costa Rica, is 1 of 4 sons of World Cup fathers playing in Russia. Check out today’s Banter for the others. Happy father’s day. https://t.co/kgbxNPlEb2 pic.twitter.com/9borbMy9Gl
— World Cup Banter (@jeffdmarcus) June 17, 2018
Serbia
1 Vladimir Stojkovic
3 Dusko Tosic
15 Nikola Milenkovic
11 Aleksandar Kolarov
6 Branislav Ivanovic
21 Nemanja Matic
20 Sergej Milinkovic-Savic
4 Luka Milivojevic
9 Aleksandar Mitrovic
22 Adem Ljajic
10 Dusan Tadic
Match summary
Costa Rica 0 – 1 Serbia
Kickoff: 17/06/2018 13:00
Referee: Malang Diedhiou,
Venue: Samara Arena
Highlights
13 min Serbia burrow forward and get the ball to Mitrovic, but his shot is blocked by Duarte, his deflection making it leap up kindly for Navas.
22 min First Yellow Card
The first yellow card of the match goes to Francisco Calvo after he slid in late on Dusan Tadic.
39 min Serbia have created nothing so far. The two best chances, by far, were Gonzalez’s headers. And have a look! Tosic slips in the act of clearing, Calvo picks up the ball, evades a tackle, and leathers a shot over the bar.
43 min A backheel from Matic sets a Serbia attack going and eventually, Milivojevic crosses into the middle, where Sergej connects well with an overhead kick, but picks out Navas. The flag goes up, though had he scored, VAR would surely have intervened for he was onside.
46 min Second Half Under Way
Senegalese referee Malang Diedhiou gets the second half under way. Will both teams be content with a point, or will somebody push for a winning goal?
50 min Best Chance for Serbia Falls Short
The best chance of the match so far comes to Aleksandar Mitrovic, who plays a 1-2 and slips in behind the Costa Rican defense. But his shot from the penalty shot is parried wide by Keylor Navas.
WHAT A GOAL! Costa Rica 0-1 Kolarov (56 min)
AND THERE IT IS! Kolarov curls an absolute jazzer over the wall an just inside the near post! The power he get with the side of his foot there! Brilliant!
78 min Ooooh that should be 2-0. Tadic gets in behind on the right and squares the pass into the six yard box. Navas dives at it, gets a tiny flick on it and Kostic has a side foot to finish in an empty net. He gets it all wrong though and the net is unharmed.
89 min MITROVIC IS IN AGAIN! And he’s wasted the chance again! Oh my word. He’s so very nearly a great player – gets in the right positions, is strong but his finishing isn’t all that. And here he gets into the box, slows down to wait for the ball to roll ahead of his body and the Costa Rica defender goes down. Mitrovic goes down too but I suspect that’s more a problem of balance than an actual foul. No VAR for this incident.
90 min There’ll be five added minutes and Costa Rica start them with a free-kick. Bolanos curls a dangerous looking ball into the box, Milenkovic heads away well, and Gamboa drives a low shit that Stojkovic fields comfortably enough.
