Costa Rica v Uruguay Odds: Luis Suarez's knee brings concern

Keep an eye on Luis Suarez's knee when betting on this game

The words 'Costa Rica' still sends shivers down the spines of Scottish football fans, but should Uruguay be worried? Neil Monnery thinks so...

Costa Rica v Uruguay
June 14, 20:00 BST
TV: ITV

Group D opens up with Costa Rica and Uruguay facing off and while most English fans will be waiting three hours to watch Roy's men make their 2014 World Cup bow, this game is important as any dropped points for Uruguay will be a huge bonus to England.

Uruguay struggled to qualify for the tournament despite being ranked as the sixth best team in world football according to FIFA. They are the seeded team in this group. If that seems mad then Portugal are ranked as the third best team in the world and they too needed a playoff where they scraped home in the battle of the star strikers, Cristiano Ronaldo out-dueling Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

In the only game since punching their ticket to the tournament, Uruguay failed to beat 40th ranked Austria. Just who are the real Uruguay? They have these star strikers in Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani but they seem to not be living up to their star billing elsewhere in the squad. We also don't know about the health of Liverpool star Suarez, who has a knee injury but insists he'll be fine.

34th-ranked Costa Rica are no pushovers and beat South American opposition in March when they downed Paraguay in San Jose. While Uruguay have Suarez and Cavani to call on, Costa Rica will be getting behind Arsenal youngster Joel Campbell and Fulham forward Bryan Ruiz to lead their line.

All logic dictates that Uruguay will win this match but that huge question mark over the health of Luis Suarez, coupled with their poor recent form and for those of you who don't like to back teams who are heavy odds-on then this might be the game for you. 

Recommended Bet:

Back The Draw at 4.67/2