Costa Rica W vs Zambia W prediction: WORLD: World Cup Women betting tips on match 2023-07-30 07:00.
Despite neither side having a point on the board and already being eliminated, this clash between Costa Rica and Zambia on Group Cās final matchday of the Women's World Cup (WWC) may not be as pointless as it may seem. The Central American team's only previous WWC campaign ended winless (D2, L1), so there should be enough motivation to end this tournament on a high. Las Ticas will have to quickly halt their three-game losing run to do that though, and with all three defeats coming āto-nilā, they face an uphill battle in search of instant improvement.
A 2-0 defeat to Japan in their last group outing also made it three straight WWC losses without scoring, but with two of their three historical goals in this competition coming before the 20th minute, early starts could be their route to redemption. Coach Amelia Valverde spoke about "two lapses" costing them dearly against Japan, but with a record of a single win this calendar year (D2, L8), perhaps those lapses are occurring more than Valverde would like to admit.
Zambia made history as the first African landlocked country to qualify for a World Cup (men or women), but the lowest-ranked side in this competition have found the going tough, slumping to consecutive 5-0 drubbings. Those results didn't do justice to coach Bruce Mwape's bullish assessment before the tournament started, when he stated his side were "working on improving the defenceā as he insisted his team would ābe fine at the World Cup.ā
Ironically, the Copper Queens have now conceded a whopping 28 goals over their last eight matches (W2, D1, L5) conceding exactly five goals in four of those! Having themselves scored 11 goals during this sequence, Zambia may not go down with a whimper, perhaps raising the prospects of an exciting match for the neutral.
Key battle: The busiest Costa Rican in this tournament has been Daniela Solera, with the ākeeper facing 46 shots against Spain and 25 against Japan! Soleraās impressive work could be tested by Zambiaās Racheal Kundananji who came into this tournament on the back of 11 goals in nine matches for club and country.
Hot stat: Costa Rica have conceded seven of their last eight WWC goals between the 20th and 30th minute.