Group D was believed to be the group of death in the FIFA World Cup 2014. There were three strong teams in the group i.e. England, Italy and Uruguay and it was hard to predict which two out of these three would be able to make it to the knockouts.
The tournament is 10-day old now. Quite a few matches have already taken place, but, none out of the above mentioned three teams has secured a berth in the knockouts. On the other hand, the 4th team in the group i.e. Costa Rica has made its way into the final 16. Yes, you read that right. Costa Rica is through to the knockouts, while, Italy and Uruguay are still trying to get there. As far as the Three Lions are concerned, they have been knocked out.
Costa Rica has been an absolute revelation in this World Cup. The confidence with which they have taken their high profile opponents on is staggering. They just haven’t seemed to care about the names that they are playing against. They have gone out there and have played the way they know and they have achieved a couple of great results.
In their first match on 15th of June, they defeated Uruguay, one of the strongest teams in the tournament, quite comprehensively. They won by 3-1. Yes, Luis Suarez, Uruguay’s main weapon was not playing in that match, but, still, it was a great effort by the Costa Rica boys.
And then against Italy the other day, Costa Rica shocked the pundits again. They showed great skills in their 1-0 win and with that, they sent England packing from the tournament as well.
They have now one group game remaining i.e. against England. They would like to win it as well and top the group.