Friday 23rd March 2018 Kick off 1945hrs Scotland v Costa Rica Football – International – Friendly This will be the first match of Alex McLeish’s second spell in charge of Scotland as they prepare to take on a Costa Rica outfit gearing up for the World Cup in June. McLeish replaced Gordon Strachan who was ultimately dismissed for failing to lead the nation to Russia this summer. For the visitors it will be the first of four friendly matches before they play their opening group game against Serbia on the 17th of June.
Scotland were in a state of flux when Gordon Strachan left the role as national team boss towards the end of last year. Failing to beat Slovenia in the final group game meant the Scots narrowly missed out on reaching the playoff and essentially failing to make yet another major finals, with their last visit being back in 1998 at the World Cup in France. Northern Ireland boss Michael O’Neill was the outright favourite to replace Strachan but months of negotiation resulted in O’Neill deciding to stay on in his current role. It left the Scottish Football Association with little in the way of an alternative before eventually turning to an old face. McLeish has been out of work for a couple of years but has previous experience of managing the national team having led Scotland to the brink of qualifying for the European Championships in 2008. He is certainly not a unanimous choice amongst the supporters but he has attempted to buy himself time by appointing a certain James McFadden on his coaching team. McFadden was arguably one of the most popular players of his generation and will carry favour amongst those doubting McLeish. He joins Peter Grant and Stevie Woods on the new look coaching staff, who have opted to use this international break to bring in some fresh faces to the squad – at the same time as leaving some more established faces out.
Qualification from the CONCACAF section was extremely tight with only four points covering four teams. Mexico were by far the strongest in the section and coasted through, whilst Costa Rica – to many people’s surprise – were second best and had qualified in advance of the final game. They ended the section with 16 points having won four and drawn four of their 10 games to ensure they reached the World Cup finals for a second straight time. It is only the fourth time in their history that they have qualified with their best finish coming last time in Brazil when being knocked out in the quarter finals by the Netherlands. If they could achieve similar again it would be an another excellent appearance for what is a relatively small nation. They have been drawn in a group containing Brazil, Serbia and Switzerland. Brazil – being favourites for the whole tournament – will be hard to topple but there will be some confidence that Costa Rica can surprise the two European nations, and with four of their five friendly games against teams from that continent, we can expect them to be very well prepared, starting with Friday’s game with Scotland.
Scotland v Costa Rica Betting Tip
Not many people enjoy watching friendly games and even fewer enjoy international friendly matches – however they become slightly more bearable when a major international tournament is on the horizon. For Scotland there will be a minor appeal in it as it marks the first game of the McLeish era but there is understandable apathy amongst the supporter at the moment. That is reflected in the poor ticket sales. A number of players will be hoping to make their mark in both this game and Tuesday’s away to Hungary with a look ahead to the new Nation’s League which begins in September. Costa Rica are all about gearing up for the World Cup and that all important opening match with Serbia in Samara in mid June.
Neither nation’s record in recent friendly games is all that positive with the visitors losing three of their last five and Scotland failing to win any of their last four. Goals have been limited in the recent Scottish friendly matches as only one of the last eight have contained three goals or more – whilst six have had exactly one goal. Costa Rica’s have definitely been more entertaining but at the same time, four of their last six friendly games played away from home have only had one goal in them. The circumstances of this game also point to a low-scoring encounter especially as the last thing McLeish will want is for his team to be defeated heavily or exposed at the back. Take under 2.5 goals in this one.
Under 2.5 goals 4/6 @ Marathon Bet
