Costa Rica Wins 2-1 in Pre-World Cup Match with Uzbekistan :

Costa Rica beat Uzbekistan 2-1 in a pleasant match performed in South Korea on Tuesday, in a match the place the Ticos as soon as once more gave a grasp class in effectivity, coming from behind in stoppage time, in a match the place they hardly created any alternatives.

The targets within the match, performed on the Suwon World Cup Stadium, south of Seoul, had been scored by Eldor Shomurodov (25) for Uzbekistan and Anthony Hernández (90+2) and Kendall Waston (90+4) for Costa Rica.

Regardless that the Uzbekistan staff misplaced, it performed higher then Costa Rica, who performed a really uninteresting sport, with no creativity and only a few assaults on purpose.

With a tidy protection and swift counter-attacks, Uzbekistan held their opponents at bay. Nevertheless, regardless of having management of the ball for many of the match, throughout stoppage time Costa Rica got here alive and as soon as once more demonstrated their attacking effectivity, lower than two months earlier than their World Cup opener towards Spain.

Costa Rica Outplayed

Costa Rica’s coach, Colombian Luis Fernando Suárez, went into the match with a very revamped beginning line-up, in comparison with the one which began final Friday’s draw towards South Korea.

The Colombian coach examined a number of gamers preparing for the World Cup, the place Los Ticos will face Spain, Japan and Germany within the preliminary spherical. 

For his half, Uzbekistan coach Srecko Katanec began with nearly all of the gamers who not too long ago beat World Cup winners Cameroon, with Roma striker Eldor Shomurodov as the primary attacking participant. 

Within the first half, Costa Rica had management of the ball, however lacked readability in assault, towards a compact and crouching opponent searching for a counter-attack with Shomurodov up entrance and Khojimat Erkinov on the appropriate.

In a kind of counterattacks, after a turnover in midfield, Shomurodov discovered himself in entrance of Costa Rican goalkeeper Aarón Cruz and beat him from beneath within the twenty fifth minute.

Shortly thereafter, Shomurodov once more discovered himself in entrance of Cruz, however the goalkeeper took the ball away from the Roma striker’s toes.

Second Half Play

Within the 54th minute of the second half, Shomurodov, after a mixture with Otabek Shukurov, missed one other likelihood in entrance of the goalkeeper, this time Patrick Sequeira, who got here in at halftime. The Costa Rican goalkeeper was efficient with a number of saves on purpose.

Confronted with Uzbek domination, Suarez made a number of modifications to offer extra life to his groups play, which was efficient in benefiting from the few possibilities it had, due to good protection and fast transitions.

When every thing appeared to point that Uzbekistan would get one other victory with Katanec on the bench, the tricolor got here again, which had already demonstrated its huge effectiveness towards South Korea (2-2) in a pleasant match performed final Friday.

First it was Hernandez, within the 92nd minute, who scored the primary purpose when he took benefit of a clearance from goalkeeper Utkir Yusupov.

Two minutes later it was the Waston’s flip, a central defender accustomed to going up for set items. This time he scored with an correct header from a set piece.

With the victory, Costa Rica has one win and one draw on this FIFA window, whereas Uzbekistan, who didn’t qualify for the World Cup, beat Cameroon and misplaced to the Costa Ricans.