Costa Rica vs Guadaloupe

Exploria Stadium is the venue as Costa Rica and Guadaloupe go head-to-head in their 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup opener.

Even though they go into this encounter winless in their last 11 internationals in a row (D5, L6 – 90 mins only), Costa Rica are odds-on favorites to mark their tournament opener with a win. The Costa Ricans boast a 100% H2H record against Guadeloupe at the Gold Cup, having won their previous two meetings in the competition by an aggregate scoreline of 6-1. However, a lack of firepower up front has seen Costa Rica fail to get on the scoresheet in four of their last five outings. ‘Los Ticos’ can’t draw much confidence from their defensive form either, considering they have managed just two clean sheets in 12 internationals, conceding 2+ goals in the last two on the spin. Disappointing second-half displays have seen four of their last six goals conceded come beyond half-time.

On the other hand, Guadeloupe’s 2021 Gold Cup campaign started with a 2-0 win over the Bahamas in the play-off semi-finals as they went on to overcome Guatemala via penalties in the play-off showpiece. Guadeloupe’s run of six internationals without losing (W5, D1 – 90 mins only) represents a significant turnaround on their form preceding this streak that had seen them lose three consecutive matches via an aggregate score of 8-0. The clean-sheet theme has highlighted Guadaloupe’s recent fixtures, with eight of their previous 11 outings seeing one or sides fail to trouble the scoreboard. Encouragingly, though, before being held to a 1-1 regulation time draw to Guatemala, ‘Les Gwada Boys’ had netted over 1.5 goals in five straight internationals, averaging 4.4 strikes per game.