Uruguay's Diego Forlan kicks the ball during an international friendly soccer match against Slovenia in Montevideo
Uruguay's Diego Forlan kicks the ball during an international friendly soccer match against Slovenia in Montevideo, June 4, 2014. Uruguay will face Costa Rica, England and Italy for the World Cup finals of Brazil 2014. REUTERS/Andres Stapff

Final Score

Uruguay 1 Costa Rica 3

Overview

The seventh match of the FIFA World Cup 2014 is going to be held between Uruguay and Costa Rica. These two teams belong to the "group of death." While Uruguay looks quite strong to go to the next round, Costa Rica is sure to start the match as the underdog on paper in Group D.

Teams

Uruguay: Uruguay has come to the tournament after winning the Copa América, the South American continental championship. Their morale must be sky high. It won both the pre-world cup friendlies against Northern Ireland (1-0) and Slovenia (2-0) without conceding any goal. The good news is that Luis Suarez is reported to be recovering well from his knee surgery. According to coach Oscar Tabarez, there is every possibility that he may play in this match. If he joins the company of players like Diego Forlan and Edinson Cavani, Uruguay will be impossible to defend.

Costa Rica: Costa Rica is the underdog in the group. However, history suggests that it can upset bigger teams. In 1990 when it qualified for the first time, it defeated Sweden and Scotland in the group stage, finishing second in the group only to Brazil. In the pre-world cup friendlies this year, on the other hand, it had a poor run. It lost to Japan (1-3) and drew against Republic of Ireland (1-1). While Bryan Oviedo said that his team is capable of causing a few upsets in the tournament, there is hardly any possibility to do likewise against Uruguay.

Head to Head

These two teams played against each other 8 times before. Uruguay won 6 of those and the other 2 matches ended in a draw. There were 23 goals scored and Costa Rica scored 8 of them.

Key Players

Uruguay: Diego Forlan, Edinson Cavani & Luis Suarez

Costa Rica: Brian Ruiz & Joel Campbell

Date, Time & Venue

Brazil's time zone is UTC/GMT -3. The match starts at 4 pm (local time) on June 14, which means it is 5 am on June 15 in New South Wales, Australia. The match will be held at Estadio Castelao in Fortaleza.

Prediction

Costa Rica is yet to win against Uruguay, and this match will be no exception. Uruguay will win it 3-1.

Group Predictions

Group A, Group B, Group C, Group D, Group E, Group F, Group G & Group H

Reference: FIFA

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au

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