Read our prediction for Costa Rica vs Nicaragua below. This preview was written by a sport journalist who is specialised in betting tips and predictions. Use our betting tips for the match between Costa Rica vs Nicaragua and you can increase your winnings!
Costa Rica vs Nicaragua Prediction & Betting tips
The 15th edition of the Gold Cup will start next weekend, and on Matchday 1 in Group B, Costa Rica will welcome the Nicaraguan side. The Ticos are one of three hosts besides the US and Jamaica. The match also takes place at the Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica in the capital San Jose, which gives Tricolor the home advantage in the match. However, the recent performances are rather weak: Three out of four international matches have been lost this year, including the USA and Peru. Only one win against Jamaica shows Costa Rica on the credit side. However, the team of coach Gustavo Matosas now expects a rather easy opponent in the form of Nicaragua.
The Azul y Blanco are only represented for the third time in the since 1991 hosted competition and have lost in their previous appearances all six completed games. A record that speaks a clear language regarding the quality of the cadre. Against this background, it is not surprising that in Costa Rica against Nicaragua, the odds turn out clearly in favor of the hosts. However, given the very low altitude for a win at La Sele, we see more value in the handicap betting on the Central Americans. The Costa Rica against Nicaragua tip thus provides that the guests will lose a maximum of two goals difference. This is also supported by the fact that the offensive of La Roja was most recently stingy with its own hits.
Costa Rica:
The great times at Costa Rica are once again over. At the moment, there is not much left of the great team that reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Brazil in 2014 and narrowly missed the Netherlands on penalties. The reason for the playful decline is that Costa Rica has only a few good young players, which come close to the former level of the team. Positive exceptions are in midfield at least, 23-year-old Allan Cruz, who kicks in MLS freshman FC Cincinnati, or 21-year-old Jimmy Marin from CS Herediano, the country’s champions and cup winners, as well as last year’s CONCACAF League winner.
At the same time, the old warriors of earlier days are long over their playful zenith. An example is Bryan Ruiz, who played at the 2014 World Cup still strong, but with now 33 years old is no longer the old class. So the midfielder is only sporadically used in his current club Santos FC. Another aging player whose performance is equally down is Celso Borges. The midfielder played until last season still at Deportivo La Coruna in La Liga, where he relegated with the team, however. Currently, he is only in the Süper Lig in Turkey at Göztepe SK under contract, which in turn was able to escape with awkwardness before going into the second division. A bad news before the Gold Cup was also the cancellation of goalkeeper Keylor Navas of Real Madrid. The only star of the Costa Rican team will therefore not come up and be busy instead with negotiations for his departure from the Madrid.
In particular, the offensive deficits were hard to miss in recent international matches. Only a meager goal was scored at home win over Jamaica. The results were equally sobering. Although the defeats to the US and Peru are still half apologized, but the bankruptcy in Guatemala in mid-March this year against the 143rd FIFA World Ranking, and thus to a more than 100 places worse standing team even less.
Nicaragua:
For the first time in the history of the country, Nicaragua secured for the second time in a row the ticket to participate in the Gold Cup. The Pinoleros will also take part in the Gold Cup for the third time ever. So far always was in the first round final. In all six completed tournament games, the Albiazules went out as losers. The goal difference of 1:15 is of course catastrophic. Coach Henry Duarte can still draw some hope this year.
So his elves took the ninth place at the recently ended qualification for the newly created CONCACAF Nations League, whereby the participation in the league B was achieved. However, the opposition with countries like Barbados or Anguilla was also very simple. The last test was again against a much larger caliber in the form of two-time world champion Argentina. The match took place last week and the Albiceleste prevailed 5-1. Thus, after all, a hit was scored, albeit only in the first minute of stoppage time and by penalty. The honorary goal was shot by Juan Barrera, who holds the rank of top scorer unquestioned with 17 goals in the jersey of the Nicaraguan national team. Otherwise, the other appearances were at least partially appealing this year. So the Elf reached a mandatory victory against Barbados and a surprising draw in Bolivia. In addition, it defeated Guatemala, but this fell as in the case of the coming counterparty only 0-1, but this had to be accepted at home.
Costa Rica vs Nicaragua head to head matches
17.01.17 COP Costa Rica Nicaragua 0 : 0
16.12.15 FI Costa Rica Nicaragua 1 : 0
03.09.14 COP Costa Rica Nicaragua 3 : 0
21.01.13 COP Costa Rica Nicaragua 2 : 0
15.02.03 COP Costa Rica Nicaragua 1 : 0