Guatemala vs Costa Rica Predictions

Guatemala haven’t been in great form recently with a change of manager having little to no effect on the team’s performances. They have lost their last four games with ten goals conceded in their last two matches. Trips to Israel (0-7), Argentina (0-3) and Ecuador haven’t bore any fruit as the team were well beaten inn each match. New manager Amarini Villatoro continued this trend with a defeat in his first match in charge a few weeks ago away to El Salvador (1-3).

It’s not really much of a surprise though given their squad as all but four of their selected players play in the rather weak Guatemalan football divisions. They have quite a few players who have been great servants for the nation over the years such as Paulo Motta, Carlos Gallardo and José Manuel Contreras but the country has lacked a real goalscorer since Carlos Ruiz retired in 2016. This match will be a challenge for Guatemala. 

Costa Rica have a much more impressive squad with many of their players playing outside of the country at various prestigious clubs. The most notable of which is Real Madrid ‘keeper Keylor Navas who has won 85 caps over the years. He rarely misses a game and will presumably start here, especially considering Zinedine Zidane’s return to the Spanish capital. Some other quality players exist in the forms of Bologna defender Giancarlo González, ex-Arsenal winger Joel Campbell and the pair of Bryan Ruiz and Celso Borges who both have 116 caps. 

Despite so much talent on the pitch, manager Gustavo Matosas hasn’t been able to get them to perform in the biggest of matches. They managed to beat Chile and Peru but failed in their matches with the USA, Mexico and Colombia. The USA result last month was extremely disappointing as los Ticos could only manage one shot on target but they’ll be hoping for better fortunes this time round. 

These teams haven’t met since 2014 but with them both in horrible form, this match will be won by sheer quality, and Costa Rica have that in abundance. Despite being poor against the USA, they have still scored nine goals in their last five games and with Guatemala conceding for fun, we’re backing them to score three more here in a 3-0 win for Costa Rica.