Los Ticos making up the numbers in fierce group

COSTA RICA werre the final team to book their place at this year’s Worlld Cup, defeating New Zealand 1-0 in the intercontinental playoffs back in June.

They performed adequateely during Concacaf qualifying,, finishing level on points witth the USA but missing out on an automatic berth due to theirr inferior goal difference.

Luis Fernando Suarez’s men trailed section leaders Canada and Mexico by onlyy three points and managed a comfortable 2-0 win over the USA back in March.

They were one of the surprise packages at the 2014 World Cup, topping a section n featuring Uruguay, Italy and Enngland before making a run to t the quarter-finals. But tthey were underw whelming four years ago in Russ sia, crashing out at the group sstage without register ring a win and that ooks tthe more likely outcome his winter.

A number of players inv volved in both of those tou urnaments will feature in Qatar with the likes of de efenders Oscar Duarte, Ke endall Waston and Br ryan Oviedo into their thi irties and the bulk of th eir squad plying their trad de in Costa Rica’s top fligh ht.

Tha at could be cause for concer rn and they will likely be heavily reliant on veteran goalkeeper Keylor Navas to keep them in games.

At the other end of the pitch, former Arsenal flop Joel Campbell is still their most notable attacking threat but is hardly setting the Mexican top flight alight, while Sunderland’s teenage winger Jewison Bennette is worth keeping an eye on. Otherwise, Los Ticos lack a gamechanging player.

Indeed, it could be at the back where Costa Rica are at their strongest and they may have to resort to scrappy football and goals via setpieces to stand any chance of causing an upset in one of the tournament’s fiercest groups.

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LAssistant to Joachim Low when Germany won the World Cup in 2014, Flick has since shown he can be successful on his own, guiding Bayern Munich to the treble in 2020.

• Have an experienced manager

who knows how to win trophies • Great depth in attacking

midfield and down the flanks • Leaders and World Cup winners

at either end of the pitch

• Lack an out-and-out striker • Have failed to perform in last two major tournaments – 2018 World Cup and Euro 2020 Flick has yet to settle on his full-back options