Costa Rica Women v Zambia Women

Costa Rica Women v Zambia Women Preview

This upcoming fixture in Group C will be a battle to avoid the wooden spoon in the group as Costa Rica and Zambia clash at the Waikato Stadium in Hamilton as both nations are still yet to gain a point in the group stage of this World Cup.

Looking at Costa Rica first, and they were dealt defeats by both Spain and Japan in their opening two games of the first stage of this tournament, losing 3-0 and 2-0 respectively and their only consolation ahead of this upcoming tussle with Zambia is that they possess the more favourable of the two goal differences between the two nations.

The bigger picture shows Costa Rica have struggled to make their mark on the world stage as they have managed to collect just the one victory out of their last 13 matches overall, a poor run of results that include no fewer than 10 defeats in the process.

Costa Rica's singular success during this lean period was a 2-0 win against Haiti, while seven of these 13 matches also resulted in Under 2.5 goals being scored, so perhaps we shouldn't expect many goals in this encounter.

Zambia's predicament has been even worse though as the African nation have been handed heavy defeats by Japan and Spain in what has been their first ever appearance in a World Cup and their debut has been a sharp learning curve for Bruce Mwape's side.

5-0 losses to both Japan and Spain do not bode well for this upcoming clash with Costa Rica but nevertheless, Zambia will feel their best chance of getting a point or indeed, points, on the board are likely to come in this final fixture in Group C on Monday night.

Unlike Costa Rica, Zambia have produced a sprinkling of victories on the world stage in recent times as they have managed to capture four wins in their last 13 matches overall which have come in the form of wins against North Macedonia, Uzbekistan, Tanzania and most impressive of all, a 3-2 win against Germany prior to the start of this World Cup.

Five of Zambia's last 13 matches have resulted in Under 2.5 goals which is not a great ratio but this upcoming clash with Costa Rica is likely to be a cagey affair between two teams that have failed to score a single goal so far in the group stage.

Costa Rica W v Zambia W Verdict

Costa Rica and Zambia have never played each other before in any type of fixture so we can expect the two sides to weight each other up in the opening stages of this final Matchday 3 encounter, and a low-scoring game looks to be on the cards here especially as neither side have hit the back of the net so far in this tournament.

Therefore, our main bet will be Under 2.5 goals @ 2.07

Other side bets worth considering:

Draw @ 3.75

Correct score: 1-1 @ 12.00