Keylor Navas’ Costa Rica take on New Zealand for last place in Qatar 2022. (Photo by KARIM JAAFAR / AFP)
Costa Rica and New Zealand define last place this afternoon at the Qatar 2022 World Cup, at the Ahmad Bin Ali stadium in Al Rayyan, in a single-game series that in the event of a tie will have extra time and penalties. The match, which will start at 3:00 pm and will be refereed by the Arab Abdulla Hassan Mohamed, will be televised on TNT Sports.
Both selected will try to seal a new participation in the Doha World Cup, and in the stadium where Australia defeated Peru on penalties yesterday afternoon, to maintain the penultimate quota for a World Cup that is already around the corner. Now it’s the turn of Costa Rica and New Zealand, as part of the playoff between Concacaf and Oceania.
Costa Rica has the opportunity to participate for the third consecutive time in a World Cup.
Costa Rica accepted this application after staying with the fourth place of the Concacaf Qualifiers, behind Canada, Mexico and the United States, already classified for the maximum event. The “Ticos” come from having seen action in the Concacaf Nations League, where they faced Panama and Martinique in matches corresponding to Group B. It was a 2-0 defeat against the Panamanians, and a victory with the same result against the island of the Lesser Antilles.
On the other hand, New Zealand earned their spot after remaining in Group B of the Concacaf Qualifiers and beating the Solomon Islands in the oceanic end towards Qatar 2022. This afternoon, the “Kiwis” will try to enter the third World Cup in their history. Their last participation was in South Africa 2010, where the New Zealanders were eliminated in the group stage, in an area shared with Paraguay, Slovakia and Italy.
Group B awaits Costa Rica or New Zealand. (REUTERS / Kai Pfaffenbach)
And if we talk about World Cup groups, it should be noted that the winner of this playoff will join Group B in Qatar, which includes Spain, Germany and Japan. In fact, it is already known that the last of the World Cup qualifiers will debut on November 23, against Luis Enrique’s “Roja”.
probable formations
Costa Rica: Keylor Navas; Keysher Fuller, Óscar Duarte, Kendall Waston, Francisco Calvo and Bryan Oviedo; Eltsin Tejada, Celso Borges, Johan Venegas and Anthony Contreras; Joel Campbell. DT: Luis Fernando Suarez.
New Zeland: Vela Oliver; Bill Tuiloma, Winston Reid and Michael Boxal; Niko Kirwan, Joe Bell, Liberato Cacace, Marko Stamenic and Matt Garbett; Ben Waine and Chris Wood. DT: Danny Hay.
Source: Clarin
