Preview: Costa Rica v Greece

The performance of Costa Rica in the 2014 World Cup reminds Greece coach Fernando Santos of the day when they won the Euro champions in 2004.

Just like the Greece in the 2004 Euro, Costa Rica showed up as the biggest dark horse in Brazil. The “Les Ticos” defeated former world champions Uruguay and Italy in the “death group”, which brought them back to the last 16 after 14 years waiting.

“In the Group of Death, they were saying the three former world champions will qualify, but Costa Rica showed the opposite,” Santos said in a news conference on Saturday,

“They reminded me of Greece in 2004 when an unknown team had the historic achievement. So we must pay attention to them.”

As runners-up in Group C, Greece moved into the World Cup’s knockout stage for the first time in the history. Santos is looking forward to his team going further

“It is an opportunity for us to rewrite the history, and we should go on and continue to enjoy playing in this unique tournament,” said the 59-year-old.

Meanwhile Colombian coach Jorge Luis Pinto is ready to guide the team to march further with the solid spirit and discipline showed in the group stage.

“We need to think big. Be realist but think big,” the 61-year-old Colombian told a new conference.

“The first match is against Greece. We will try to win that and take it from there.”

“We have this motivation and we want to make it. I would really like to enjoy this happiness. We feel the possibility to win and to do something even better for the country,” Pinto added.

Source: Xinhua