Italy 0-1 Costa Rica: Los Ticos continue giant- slaying run

Italy 0-1 Costa Rica: Los Ticos continue giant- slaying run

stun Italy 1-0 and book their place in the second
round of the World Cup this evening in Recife.
Bryan Ruiz’s header before the interval proved to be
the winning goal and in turn knocked England out of
the tournament.
Jorge Pinto’s side created the first opening of the
game as Celso Borges headed Christian Bolanos’s
corner narrowly over the bar.
Italian started slowly but began to grow into the
match and Thiago Motta had their first chance when
the ball broke to him kindly in space outside the box,
but he could only fire an effort wide of the target.
Mario Balotelli had the best chance of the half as he
was found by a precise pass over the Costa Rica
defence by Pirlo, but the AC Milan
striker’s attempted chip over the keeper failed to
find the target.
The AC Milan striker came close again just moments
later when he latched onto Motta’s flick, before
seeing his powerful effort from the edge of the box
beaten away by Keylor Navas.
Los Ticos created openings of their own. Gianluigi
Buffon had to be alert to palm away Bolanos’s
stinging low drive, before Oscar Duarte headed over
from Ruiz’s cross
Moments later Costa Rica felt they should have had
a penalty when Joel Campbell was brought down by
Giorgio Chiellini inside the box, but the referee
waved away their protests.
With a minute of the half left to play Costa Rica
took the lead through Ruiz, who met Junior Diaz’s
cross at the back post to head the ball in off the
underside of the bar.
Italy started the second half on the front foot as
Matteo Darmian forcing Navas to tip his long-range
strike over.
Pirlo struggled to impact this game as he did
against England but he did come close with a
trademark free kick that was beaten away by the
keeper.
Costa Rica almost grabbed a second in the dying
moments of the game when Randall Brenes worked
himself some space outside the box, before bending
an effort over the bar.
They held on  to claim the three points as they
secured their place in the last-16 and will seek to
get a positive result against England to top the
group.