Costa Rica vs Paraguay Betting Tips & Predictions

Costa Rica are enjoying a good spell at the moment. They have a top quality goalkeeper in Keylor Navas and an emerging young talent going forward in Joel Campbell. The likes of Bryan Oviedo and Christian Gamboa can help keep it tight at the back and we saw what Bryan Ruiz was capable of when he was at Fulham.

This has helped them to the top of their group in the CONCACAF World Cup qualification, with three wins and a draw from their four matches leaving them three points clear of 2nd placed Panama and six above Jamaica in 3rd.

They have won six of their last eight matches, only faltering in a defeat in Venezuela and a draw against Jamaica back in March. Since these two failures they have beaten Jamaica at home and beaten Venezuela as well.

Paraguay will be the first of three tough tests for Costa Rica though. The group consists of Colombia, United States, Costa Rica, and Paraguay. Colombia should be able to top the group, but the other qualifying place is up for grabs really as all teams have a chance of making it through to the knockout stages.

Paraguay lost their warm up game for the Copa America 1-0 in Mexico, and this defeat made it just one win from their last six matches. Of course, they do have much tougher opposition in their World Cup qualification campaign than their opponents. The likes of Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, and Argentina have made it difficult for them recently, leaving them 7th in the qualification table with nine points from their opening six matches.

Both of these teams pride themselves on having a very solid back line, but neither of them offer much going forward. Costa Rica have only conceded five goals in their last ten matches and Paraguay have generally kept it tight at the back despite having to face world class teams.

Avoiding defeat in this one is the main priority as they both look to stay in the race for 2nd place, so I’m expecting both Costa Rica and Paraguay to remain their usual defensive selves. This should result in at least one clean sheet, so I’m backing Both Teams Not to Score at 4/6. I think Costa Rica have more talent going forward, and for Paraguay the likes of Juan Iturbe especially is too inconsistent to back, so I’m going for a 1-0 win for Costa Rica at 13/2. The Costa Ricans also have a better back line with the likes of Oviedo, Navas, and Gamboa.