England's Rooney celebrates scoring against Uruguay during their 2014 World Cup Group D soccer match at the Corinthians arena in Sao Paulo
England's Wayne Rooney celebrates scoring against Uruguay during their 2014 World Cup Group D soccer match at the Corinthians arena in Sao Paulo June 19, 2014. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

Final Score

Costa Rica 0 England 0

Overview

The fortieth match of the FIFA World Cup 2014 is going to be held between Costa Rica and England. The Group D match is the last chance for England to restore its pride as it has already been eliminated from the world cup. Costa Rica, on the other hand, will definitely go for the kill to make history by winning all three group matches, a feat it has never achieved in a world cup before.

Teams

Costa Rica: Costa Rica came as an outsider in the "Group of Death" as the other three teams (Italy, England and Uruguay) were much better than the Central American team on paper. Even a draw against England could have secured its place in the "group of 16" but Jorge Luis Pinto's team had other plans. It turned out to be the dark horse in the group that defeated one big team after another. Bryan Ruiz's goal was enough to beat Italy. Now it will definitely try to beat England and storm in to the next round. It reached the "round of 16" only once before in 1990. However, it did not manage to win all the group matches as it lost to Brazil. This time, even a draw will put it in the top spot, a first time in Costa Rica's history.

England: England became the world champion in 1966. However, it has never managed to reach a world cup final ever since. In fact, it managed to reach the semi-finals only once and quarter finals only 5 times in 1990 after playing 12 world cups. England's abysmal misery at the world cup continued this year also as it has been eliminated even before playing all the group matches. It will face the main culprit of its debacle, Costa Rica, in the next match. If England loses against the South American team, it will lose all 3 matched in the group stages. The good news is Wayne Rooney scored for the first time in a world cup. Rooney believed that his team suffered from lack of gamesmanship. This match is England's last chance to restore some pride.

Head to Head

These two teams never played against each other before.

Key Players

Costa Rica: Bryan Ruiz and Joel Campbell

England: Wayne Rooney and Raheem Sterling

Date, Time & Venue

Brazil's time zone is UTC/GMT -3. The match starts at 2 pm (local time) on June 24, which means it is 2 am on June 25 in New South Wales, Australia. The match will be held at Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte.

Prediction

England will not lose the opportunity to show its true potential for the last time. It will win 2-1. Rooney will score again.

Group Predictions

Group A, Group B, Group C, Group D, Group E, Group F, Group G & Group H

Reference: FIFA

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au