Netherlands vs Costa Rica: Preview and Probable Lineup

Netherlands and Costa Rica play each other in quarterfinal encounter of FIFA World Cup 2014.

These teams have never met in an international match and this will be the first and the most important game for these sides in years to come.

Netherlands were winners of Group B after they accumulated perfect nine points from their three matches. They defeated defending champions Spain by -1 in the inaugural match and followed it up with a 3-2 win against Australia after Depay scored in last moments of the match. Netherlands ended their group stage run with a 2-0 win over Chile. They then advanced to knockout stage to face Mexico, who were runners up of Group A. Netherlands beat Mexico by 2-1 in last minute of regular time after Klass Jan Huntelaar scored the winning penalty in towards the end. Rafael Marquez fouled Arjen Robben inside the box to result the penalty.

Costa Rica, like Netherlands topped their group with seven points out of nine. They were in Group D along with England, Italy and Uruguay. They beat Uruguay by 3-1 in their first game and then clinched the victory against Italy by 1-0 in the following match. They ended their group stage run with a 0-0 draw against England. They then met Greece in the quarters who advanced as runners up of Group C. Costa Rica defeated Greece in penalties after the game ended 1-1 in regular time, including Sokratis’ equalizer in the 90th minute.

Team News:

Nigel De Jong hobbled off injured in the previous match and he will miss the action for 2/3 weeks. Leroy Fer is expected to replace the midfielder if Louis Van Gaal goes with same formation.

Probable Starting Lineup:

Netherlands:

Formation: 3-4-1-2

Jasper Cillesen: Bruno Martins Indi, Ron Vlaar, Stefan Di Vrij: Daley Blind, Wijandlum, Leroy Fer, Daryl Janmaat: Wesley Sneijder: Robin Van Persie, Arjen Robben

Costa Rica:

Formation: 5-4-1

Keylor Navas: Gamboa, Duarte, Gonzalez, Umana, Diaz: Tejeda, Borges, Bryan Ruiz, Cristian Bolanos: Joel Campbell