Costa Rica are coming off an historic Brazil 2014 journey, where they were the Cinderella story of the tournament, advancing all the way to the quarter-finals after getting out of a tough group with England, Italy and Uruguay. Although they have lost the majority of their recent international friendlies, Los Ticos will take confidence from their qualifying campaign, which included a 4-0 rout of USA on home soil.

The holders open their tournament against possibly the strongest opponent in Group F and are well aware of the challenge that lies ahead. Germany’s line-up poses some tough questions for Low, and he has said that Julian Draxler will start, likely joining Mesut Ozil at the expense of Marco Reus. They will be hoping for a repeat of 2014, when they comfortably beat highly-rated Portugal 4-0 in their opener.

The Rostov Arena will provide a spectacular setting for the second match in Group E at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™, which pits tournament favourites Brazil against Switzerland, who are the only side in history to have beaten eventual World Cup champions in their opening match.

Possible line-ups
Brazil: Alisson; Danilo, Thiago Silva, Miranda, Marcelo; Casemiro, Paulinho, Philippe Coutinho; Willian, Gabriel Jesus, Neymar.
Switzerland: Sommer; Lichtsteiner, Schaer, Akanji, Rodriguez; Behrami, Xhaka; Shaqiri, Dzemaili, Zuber; Seferovic.