Italy vs Costa Rica: Preview and Probable Starting Lineup

Italy and Costa Rica play each other in their second game of Group D fixtures of World Cup 2014 campaign.

Italy and Costa Rica are playing each other for the fist time in international arena and the game has a lot of importance in both the team’s knockout stage fate. The winning team from this game will book their spot in the knockout stage while a draw would mean a job half finished.

Italy defeated England in the first game with goals from Claudio Marchisio and Mario Balotelli. Marchisio scored a long range effort after a corner from Candreva was left by Andrea Pirlo. Despite England scoring an equalizer minutes after the lead though Daniel Sturridge, they won the match with a strong second half performance.

Costa Rica shocked Uruguay by winning 3-1 after falling a goal down in the first half. Cavani converted the penalty for Uruguay and were on course for a victory but Joel Cambell’s impressive performance helped Costa Rica come back to register a historic win for the team. They scored 2 goals in short time to put the pressure on South American team.

Team News:

Italy will be without Gianluigi Buuffon and Mattia De Scigilo as they are both vying to be fit. Manager Cesare Prandelli will make some changes at the back with Paletta sitting out for Bonucci and Abate coming in for Darmian.

Costa Rica have no any injured player and they will put up the same formation and lineup against Uruguay. They will have an eye on the points table and play for a draw if needed.

Probable Starting Lineup:

Italy:

Formation: 4 – 1 – 4 – 1

Salvatore Sirigu (GK): Iganzio Abate, Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini: Daniele De Rossi: Andrea Pirlo, Claudio Marchisio, Marco Veratti, Antonio Candreva: Mario Balotelli

Costa Rica:

Formation: 5 – 4 – 1

Keylor Navas (GK): Junior Diaz, Giancarlo Gonzalez, Michael Umana, Cristian Gamboa, Oscar Duarte: Celso Borges, Yeltsin Tejeda, Christian Bolanos, Bryan Ruiz: Joel Cambell