WORLD CUP PREVIEW Thurs: Costa Rica v Germany

To say Group E is delicately poised would be an understatement. It’s so finely balanced that all four sides can still qualify for the Round Of 16 and even Costa Rica are no bigger than 8/1 to do just that with starsports.bet

It’s a shame that both games are being played simultaneously but it obviously has to be that way especially with the maths being as they are.

Germany (basically Bayern Munich by proxy) are 2/9 to qualify yet, as it stands, are propping up the Group – anything else but a win against Costa Rica will send them home at the end of the Group phase for the second successive World Cup.

Chatting to head of football Rory Fleming on the starsports.bet trading desk he said that Germany have been hard to lay on the outright market and of course impossibly short for this match so the outcome isn’t likely to have any major ramifications.

Costa Rica v Germany
FIFA World Cup 2022 Group E
7pm ITV4,ITVX,STV Player

HEAD-TO-HEAD
JUN 2006 WORLD CUP Germany 4-2 Costa Rica

COSTA RICA
SEP 2022 INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLY South Korea 2-2 Costa Rica
SEP 2022 INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLY Uzbekistan 1-2 Costa Rica
NOV 2022 INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLY Costa Rica 2-0 Nigeria
NOV 2022 WORLD CUP Spain 7-0 Costa Rica
NOV 2022 WORLD CUP Japan 0-1 Costa Rica

GERMANY
SEP 2022 NATIONS LEAGUE Germany 0-1 Hungary
SEP 2022 NATIONS LEAGUE England 3-3 Germany
NOV 2022 INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLY Oman 0-1 Germany
NOV 2022 WORLD CUP Germany 1-2 Japan
NOV 2022 WORLD CUP Spain 1-1 Germany

Germany’s opening loss against Japan was one of the seismic shocks of the tournament so far and then Japan paid the price for bizarrely playing a weakened side against Costa Rica – a decision that may yet turn out to haunt them.

In fairness to the Germans, they did play much better against Spain in the match of the Group so far. The 1-1 draw kept their hopes alive and the good teams tend to raise their game as the tournament goes on – we’ve seen that so many times with the Germans in the past.

There has to be assumption here that there will be plenty of goals and that they will come early. So many of the Group games have been slow burners but Germany will want to get out of the traps flying as this is almost a knockout game in disguise given the perilous state of the table.

There’re a range of bets that appeal on starsports.bet. Germany winning both halves at 5/6, Germany to win from behind at 8/1 in case Costa Rica grab an early goal and I’d say first goal to come between 1-10 minutes at 14/5 looks interesting too given the sense of urgency for Germany to get business done quickly.

There’s one crucial stat to remember – Costa Rica have had one shot on target all tournament which converted to a goal over Japan but will we be back to the Costa Rican defence that leaked goals in their opening match against Spain?

As well as goals I’m expecting plenty of chances and corners too, so will play over 9.5 match corners at 20/21.

DAVID STEWART

RECOMMENDED BETS

Back GERMANY TO WIN BOTH HALVES 1.5pts at 5/6 (Latest Star Price ? CLICK TO BET NOW)
Back GERMANY TO WIN FROM BEHIND 1pt at 8/1 (Latest Star Price ? CLICK TO BET NOW)
Back FIRST GOAL 1-10 MINUTES 3pts at 14/5 (Latest Star Price ? CLICK TO BET NOW)
Back OVER 9.5 MATCH CORNERS 5pts at 20/21 (Latest Star Price ? CLICK TO BET NOW)

PROFIT/LOSS (WORLD CUP 2022): LOSS 47.35 points (after matches on Wed 30 Nov, includes TWO GOOD bonus on CAMEROON v SERBIA 28 Nov)
(Will include returns from both the OUTRIGHT and SPECIALS previews too)