Football. ua presents the announcement of the 2018 World Cup match between Costa Rica and Serbia.

In the first match of group E Costa Rica will compete with Serbia.

Costa Rica - Serbia Group E, 1st round, June 17, 15:00, Samara, Samara Arena.

Broadcasting the match on Inter.

The paths of the combined teams of Serbia and Costa Rica have never crossed, but today they have to compete in the first match for themselves at the World Cup 2018. The obvious favorite of this quartet are the Brazilians, but for the second line there is a serious struggle. At the same time, the chances of the Serbs and the Swiss are approximately equal, but the Costa Rican national team is an outsider.

As it often happens for underdogs, their first match at a major tournament can be decisive. If today Costa Ricans can not catch at least for a draw, then their chances of remaining in Russia after the group stage will fall almost to zero. As for the Serbs, they will only play to win and any other result will not suit them. Team Mladen Krstajic need to defeat Costa Rica and then in the internal confrontation with the Swiss to decide who will go further.

The national team from Central America lost both friendly matches before the World Cup, but nobody panicked. Then the Costa Ricans stood up against England and Belgium, which are certainly stronger. Oscar Ramirez then made the last attempts to find the ideal model of the game for his team, so there's nothing wrong with those results.

As for the personnel situation, all the players of the national teams of Costa Rica and Serbia are healthy and ready to take part in today's game. It seems that the Serbs from the first minute will take the ball under their control and will look for happiness at the gate of an opponent who will play without a twinge of conscience from defense in the hope of quick counter-attacks.

Approximate compositions:.

Costa Rica: To. Navas-Gamboa, Gonzalez, Acosta, Duarte, Oviedo-B. Ruiz, Borges, Guzman, Bolanos-Urenia Serbia:

Stojkovic-Ivanovic, Milenkovic, Toshich, Kolarov-Matic, Milinkovich-Savic-Tadic, Llajic, Kostic-Mitrovic Interesting facts:.

- Costa Rica squad has not won in the last 3 matches.

- The Serbs did not lose in 12 of the last 13 matches.

- Team Costa Rica scored at least one goal in each of the last 5 matches, and the national team of Serbia - in the last 15 games.

- Serbia did not play a draw in the last 4 matches.

forecast 0: 1.