Friday evening’s trio of fixtures get underway with a vital Group D clash between Italy and Costa Rica at 5pm. England fans will be paying particular attention to this one, knowing that a draw would be enough to eliminate the Three Lions after back-to-back losses in their opening couple of fixtures:
Italy: Buffon; Abate, Darmian, Barzagli, Chiellini; Motta, De Rossi, Pirlo; Candreva, Balotelli, Marchisio
Costa Rica: Navas; Gamboa, Duarte, Gonzalez, Umana, Diaz; Ruiz, Tejeda, Borges, Bolanos; Campbell
Cesare Prandelli continues with a 4-3-3 formation for tonight’s match. The Italy boss makes a trio of alterations from the XI that faced England – Gianluigi Buffon recovers from injury to feature between the posts as Salvator Sirigu drops out, Ignazio Abate comes in for Gabriel Paletta at the back, whilst Thiaggo Motta gets the nod ahead of Marco Veratti in the centre of the park. Up front, Mario Balotelli and Claudio Marchisio will be hoping to find the net for the second match in succession as Prandelli’s side close in on a place in the last 16.
Unsurprisingly, Jorge Luis Pinto make no changes from the starting XI that shocked Uruguay 3-1 in the opener. This sees Costa Rica line up in a 5-4-1 formation, with Arsenal’s Joel Campbell leading the line once again after serving up a goal and assist against the South Americans.
We then move onto Group E for the later two games. First up at 8pm, Switzerland and France go head-to-head as both sides attempt to build on victories in their respective openers and strengthen their chances of winning the group. The Swiss have decisions to make in the final third after both goals in the 2-1 win over Ecuador came courtesy of substitutes Admir Mehmedi and Haris Seferovic. Elsewhere, Ricardo Rodriguez will be looking to replicate his pair of assists from left-back and both Xherdan Shaqiri and Granit Xhaka offer potential in the attacking midfield three. Karim Benzema’s two goals and assist proved pivotal for the French against Honduras, while Mathieu Valbuena, Antoine Griezmann and Paul Pogba will be desperate to open their Fantasy accounts.
The final match of the evening sees Honduras and Ecuador attempt to bounce back from their opening defeats. An ill-disciplined Honduras offered little in the way of attacking potential in last week’s loss to France and will be of little interest to Fantasy managers, though the South Americans will be optimistic that frontmen Enner Valencia and Felipe Caicedo and wingers Antonio Valencia and Jefferson Montero can make the difference and spark their campaign back into life in what looks a straightforward game for Reinaldo Rueda’s side.
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