FIFA World Cup 2022 – Japan vs Costa Rica, Group E, match preview, predicted lineups
Japan take on Costa Rica in FIFA World Cup 2022 Group E on Sunday as the tournament moves ahead. Japan go into this game as he favourites.
Kick-off : 1:00 PM (Local)
Venue : Ahmed bin Ali Stadium, Al Rayyan
Asian giants Japan showed how promising their football is when they overcame mighty Germany in their first game of this tournament. And they will require similar efforts if hey are to qualify from this section.
The Samurai Blue will like to be rock solid against the Costa Rican side which can hurt them. Plus they will need to be aggressive going up front. They would want a complete performance.
Boss Hajime Moriyasu will use the 4-2-3-1 system on Sunday.
On the other hand, Costa Rica were absolutely out of shape contrastingly in their first game of the tournament loosing 0-7 to European heavyweights Spain. They will look to bounce back.
Los Ticos will have to defend well this time around against similar kind of opponents in Japan and look for chances up front.
Manager Luis Fernando Suarez will likely deploy the 4-4-2 from the off.
Team news and possible lineups
Kendall Watson is available for Costa Rica and might play.
As for the Japanese, Hiroki Sakai is a doubt.
Japan XI : Gonda, Tomiyasu, Itakura, Yoshida, Nagatomo, Endo, Tanaka, Ito, Kamada, Kubo, Asano.
Costa Rica XI : Navas, Watson, Calvo, Duarte, Oviedo, Tejeda, Borges, Bennette, Fuller, Campbell, Contreras.
Prediction
Japan will be favourites from the start but we need to remember that it is do-or-die game for Costa Rica and anything could happen. The team which can overcome the pressure should prevail. I am predicting Japan to win maybe 2-1 on the day.
