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Aron Wright - March 20, 2018
Scotland vs Costa Rica
International Friendly Match
Date: Friday, 23rd March 2018
Kick-off at 19:45 UK/ 20:45 CET
Venue: Hampden Park, Glasgow.
Scotland start a new era under Alex McLeish with a friendly against Costa Rica on Friday night.
The Scots narrowly missed the flight to World Cup after finishing third in the group falling behind Slovakia on goal-difference. This was down to the poor start to the campaign as they managed just a win from first 4 games. They bowed off the competition with a 6 match unbeaten run bagging 4 wins and 2 draws.
The ex-Rangers boss Alex McLeish called up six new faces to for his first match is charge as Scotland boss. Liverpool wing-back Andrew Robertson, Newcastle United midfielder Matt Ritchie and Manchester United youngster Scott McTominay are few familiar names in that list. Yet, it has to be noted that this is an inexperienced team at this level with only 5 players in the squad having played 10 or more international games.
Costa Rica on the other hand, finished in the second in the North America and qualified for the global tournament for a third consecutive time. However, their recent performances do come under scrutiny. The team is win-less in their last five games in all competitions with the most recent three ending in defeats. The lowest points are the 5-0 thrashing from the hands of Spain and the narrow 1-0 loss to Hungary in the last round of friendlies.
The Ticos do have an experienced squad, but the recent results show that they haven’t come together as a group off-late.
The teams met just once in the last two decades. That was in the group phase of 1990 World Cup and Costa Rica edge the tie by 1-0 margin.
If you look at the form guide, Scotland look like a far better team. But there will be have a completely squad than the one that earned those solid results. And the team do lack the minimum experience to compete at this level.
Costa Rica do have their core players in the squad that have been playing together for a long-time. This is a perfect chance for them to get back to winning ways.
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