17TH JUNE
COSTA RICA VS SERBIA
Match kicks off at 13:00 (BST) on ITV 1. Coverage starts at 12:30 (BST). Jacqui Oatley is joined by Henrik Larsson, Patrice Evra and Eni Aluko, commentary from Joe Speight and Iain Dowie.
Costa Rica are starting to become a regular feature in World Cups with this being their 4th appearance in the last 5 World Cups and they are still ranked a respectable 23rd in the world. Despite poor form in recent friendlies they actually qualified with a better record than they did 4 years ago, where they shocked everybody by knocking out England and Italy in the group stages. The one thing they won’t have going for them this time though is being the unexpected surprise package they were 4 years ago. That said they still have players like Campbell and Ruiz who can cause problems on their day. However, I’ll be massively surprised if they match their performance of 4 years ago reaching the quarter-finals.
Serbia, currently ranked 34th in the world, return to the World Cup after missing out in Brazil 4 years ago. They topped their group in qualifying ahead of Wales, Rep. of Ireland and Austria. Most of their players will be familiar with English fans; Ivanovic, Kolarov, Matic, Milivojevic, Tadic and Mitrovic and they have Lazio’s Milinkovic-Savic who looks to be a promising player heavily linked with a move to the Premier League. Since the dissolution of Yugoslavia they are yet to make it past the group stage but this year presents a big opportunity for them to do so.
I think this will be a tight affair, probably a draw but Serbia do have enough to win this game.
GERMANY VS MEXICO
Match kicks off at 16:00 (BST) on BBC 1. Coverage starts at 15:30 (BST). Commentary from Jonathan Pearce and Phil Neville, analysis from Rio Ferdinand and Alan Shearer.
So, Germany are back, the world champions, ranked number 1 in the world and one of the favourites again to lift the World Cup again. They have never failed to make the last 8 of a world cup (bar the time they were banned in 1950) and the last time they failed to make the Semi-Finals was France 1998. In qualifying they were superb, winning all 10 games and scoring a European record of 43 goals. Muller and Wagner were top goal scorers with 5 goals but it is expected that Timo Werner will lead the line but they have world-class players all over the pitch, so expect goals from everywhere. Will be interesting to see how Thomas Muller does, he’s shown up in the 2 World Cups he’s played scoring 5 goals in each, it is feasible that he comes close to the World Cup goal scoring record; 6 behind Klose, 5 behind Ronaldo, 4 behind Gerd Muller etc…in fact he’s just 2 behind Pele. The fact they didn’t select Sane won’t go down well with us blues though but there's still City interest with Gundogan.
Mexico are the highest ranked team in North America at 15th in the world as they reach their 7th straight finals. Funnily enough they’ve been knocked out in the last 16 of the past 6 World Cup’s dating back to USA 1994. Losing just once in qualifying, they were clearly the stand out team in North America. A lot of their players are international recognised, to name a few; Rafael Marquez, Layun, Moreno, Dos Santos, Guardado, Herrera, Jimenez, Vela, Hernadez and Lozano to name a few. Rafael Marquez is going to his 5th World Cup finals, equalling the record of Matthaus, Buffon and fellow Mexican Carbajal, him and Matthaus being the only outfield players to do so. Lozano was their top goal scorer in qualifying.
Germany always show up, so I expect them to be ready from the off in this one
BRAZIL VS SWITZERLAND
Match kicks off at 19:00 (BST) on ITV 1. Coverage begins at 18:30 (BST). Mark Pougatch is joined by Ian Wright, Roy Keane, Slaven Bilic and Gary Neville. Commentary from Clive Tyldesley and Lee Dixon.
Brazil come into this tournament as favourites and with good reason, as the 2nd ranked side in the world they absolutely tore the South American qualifying to shreds, finishing 10 points ahead of 2nd place Uruguay. Having watched every game since Gabriel Jesus’ debut for them, it feels like the manager Tite has them playing football that we haven’t seen from them since the 2002 world cup. Once again they are a team with so many world-class players that it is not worth naming them. Neymar is of course their star player but our very own Gabriel Jesus was Brazil’s top goal scorer in qualifying, with only Cavani out scoring him on the continent. Big City interest with this one, Danilo and Jesus look set to start and I would expect Fernandinho to line up alongside Casemiro, Ederson however is 2nd choice behind Alisson.
Switzerland, perennial abusers of Fifa’s world ranking system come into this tournament ranked 6th in the world due to their selective choice of friendlies. That said, they won 9 out of 10 qualifiers finishing behind Portugal only on goal difference which led to them overcoming Northern Ireland in 2 tight play off games, this is also their 4th straight World Cup appearance. They also come into this tournament on the back of some good friendly performances; a 6-0 win over Panama, a 1-1 draw with Spain and a 2-0 win over Japan. In Brazil 4 years ago they were somewhat dark horses, I don’t think they quite come into this tournament with that tag but they have a good chance of getting out of the groups. Shaqiri is probably still their star attacking player but most of their squad are recognisable to European football watchers.
I think this could be tighter than expected but I expect Brazil to find the break though eventually and get off to a winning start. Hopefully Jesus begins his journey to top goalscorer in the tournament.
