Switzerland V Costa Rica World Cup 2018

Switzerland V Costa Rica

(Synopsis in red)

Beers: Group E of Beer World Cup:

World Cup of Beer Group E

Celestial Brewery from Neuchâtel, Switzerland, a late last minute edition to my beer world cup will be up against an old favourite Imperial from Costa Rica. Will it be a winning start to a new beer, or can Imperial qualify today with another win?

Celestial Brewery make a winning start, nice one. Had a really interesting taste, hoppy and full of flavour, was nice to sip through while looking at the football. Hard luck to Imperial, a nice lager, but no match for a tasty IPA.

PreGame:

Serbia V Switzerland was a game of two halves, really. Mitrovic scored early doors, from an excellent cross by Tadic, who only a minute beforehand had whipped in a virtually similar cross into the box. This time they scored, and Mitrovic and Tadic were combining well all first half, with most play coming down the left side. At the other end of the pitch, Serbia’s defence was again solid, the Swiss just couldn’t get pass them at all.

How often have we seen teams punished for missing simple chances. Well that happened when Tosic should really have made it 2-0 when he totally missed a free header in the Swiss box. Oh how he will rue that miss.

Then in the second half Switzerland came more into it, Shaqiri spent most of the first half moaning and falling down easy, but in the second half he decided to actually play, and was to be found on both wings and playing balls from all over. Much improved.

The game, and momentum, had changed in the Swiss’ favour, and sure enough on the 52nd minute, Xhaka (who did fuck all else in the game) scored with a cracker from outside the box to equalize. Was a good finish alright.

It was amazing what a goal can do, for the Swiss it reinvigorated them while totally shocked the Serbs who looked like it drained them of all their energy. Shaqiri hit the post with a wonder strike, and you could sense that perhaps there was a win for this Swiss team. Well in the 90 minute that goal came, and Shaqiri was the man to take all the credit, on the break calming slotting it past the on running goal, you just knew he wasn’t going to miss from there. Brilliant, what a turnaround for the Swiss.

For the Swiss, I thought Akanji in central defence was good, first time seeing him and I was impressed, he was pacy and on top of most things. Also Rodríguez came into it in the second half with his usual bombing runs on the wing. They now know a win today against the Costa Ricans and they are through to the last 16. A draw might also be enough. Mission accomplished, very efficient.

Costa Rica V Brazil: Good game, were Brazil started the more livelier and were far pacier in the early stages of the game, without creating a whole lot of chances either. In fact the first real chance of the game fell to Borges who had a clear shot on goal but he fluffed it way wide. What a terrible chance wasted.

Neymar was active, and he forced Navas off his line to save, early on. He also had another good chance to score but for the reaction save of Navas again. Neymar had the chances but looked a little off the pace just ever so slightly. Remember he still isn’t completely back to full fitness. But it wasn’t all Neymar, Coutinho had a cracking game, with all the good moves starting with him on the ball first.

Costa Rica continued to have chances of their own, had a 3 v 2 break but again they fluffed their lines. They really could have done with more composure in the final half of the pitch.

Time was ticking and it didn’t look like a goal was coming. The Neymar capitalized on a bad mistake to be running on free towards goal on his favourite foot, a goal surely? Alas he hit it curling just wide. Was that the chance gone?

No, because not long after Neymar was again involved, this time in the box appearing to be dragged back by the Costa Rican defender. It looked a penalty, but the referee needed another view. He wasn’t convinced and changed his mind, no penalty. A brave decision and the correct decision I think. A slight touch but a dramatic fall by Neymar. Good decision.

Costa Rica thought they had done enough, got the draw they needed. But one minute into injury time, Coutinho ran onto a ball and smashed it home, brilliant, and no more than he deserved. This goal started the samba football off, and flicks and lovely ball control were shown by the guys in yellow, including Neymar who cleverly flicked the ball over the defenders head, what skill! And if that wasn’t enough, rather than defend the lead, Brazil only went up and scored another. Finally the man of the moment got on the scoresheet, Neymar, with a nice square pass from Costa, 2-0 to get Brazil’s world cup finally on the road. All great fun and drama to watch! Not much fun for Costa Rica though, and perhaps today they can let the shackles off and play some good football, as I know its in them, somewhere.

A more detailed review on Switzerland here and on Costa Rica here

Looked at the first half of this game.

Costa Rica started on fire, as I expected, and to be fair, like in all their games. They actually had 3 chances back to back within the space of about a minute, or about that! Firstly Campbell (who was finally starting, jeez!) hit a long in-swinger that Sommer just about pushed away, then Borges hit the woodwork with a bullet header, again Sommer saving brilliantly, and the to cap it all off Colindres with a long range effort, again Sommer getting down to it. Brilliant start for CR.

Colindres had a few chances, hitting the crossbar with a great shot, unlucky not to score, then twice in the box failing to square a ball he shoots and misses, twice he did that, greedy bastard.

Sommer was unbeatable, making save after save, the man just could not be beaten in the first half, a world class performance.

Of course if you dont take your chances then the usual thing happens, the other team goes up the other end and scores, and that is exactly what Switzerland did. A lovely, one-two-three, from Lichtsteiner (only the one dive in the first half) with a lovely cross to Embolo who knocked it down beautifully for Dzemaili to rifle it home in the box, lovely goal. One nil to Switzerland, with oh so little effort.

Lichtsteiner, the prick, ended up getting a deserved yellow for a bad tackle which means he will miss the next game, a big loss to the team. What an idiot.

In the second half the game ended up 2-2 which didn’t mean much as Switzerland surely must have known that they were through at that stage.They now go on to play Sweden which will be a tough enough game for them. Will Shaqiri be able to handle it i wonder, the big girls blouse? As for Costa Rica, they kind of disappointed a little, in that they had chances in all their games, but most of the time they just couldn’t put the ball into the back of the net.

Music to get you in the mood

DJ Antoine ft. The Beat Shakers – Ma Chérie (DJ Antoine vs Mad Mark 2k12 Edit) (Switzerland) V Suite Doble – Profanar (Costa Rica)