Costa Rica and Guinea will aim to reignite their respective campaigns when they meet in a must win Group D encounter at the FIFA U-17 World Cup here on Tuesday.
Both teams had lost their respective campaign openers and will need to win in order to keep alive their chances of advancing to the knockout stages.
Despite their defeat to Germany, Costa Rica were quite impressive in their opening game.
The had given the strong title contenders a really tough time and almost snatched what would have been a well deserved draw before a late goal handed a 2-1 win and the full three points to the Europeans.
This is Costa Rica's tenth appearance at the U-17 World Cup. They had reached the quarter-finals at the last edition before losing to Belgium.
The Costa Rica defence had put in a sturdy display in their last match, absorbing wave after wave of German attacks before a late error cost them dearly.
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The Guinea forwards will have to be at the top of their game in order to penetrate the Costa Rica defence and find their names on the scoresheet.
The Africans had also struggled to contain the Iran forwards during their 1-3 defeat to the Asian giants and will need to tighten up their defence.
Guinea's best performance at the U-17 World Cup came in 1985 when they finished fourth. Going by the showing in their campaign opener, they have extremely slim chances of doing an encore.
The Africans have shown plenty of resilience and fighting spirit when facing higher rated opponents. They came back from 0-1 deficits in both legs of their second round tie against Morocco during the qualifiers of the CAF U-17 Africa Cup of Nations, before advancing on penalties.
They kicked off the continental finals with a 5-1 victory over hosts Gabon. A 1-1 draw with continental giants Cameroon and a goalless stalemate with two-time U-17 World Cup winners Ghana secured them a place in the last four, and with it, a trip to the world finals in India.
Guinea will aim to produce a similar gritty performance as they seek to boost their sagging campaign.
--IANS
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