Italy vs Costa Rica
Both teams were looking to continue their good form after winning their first matches. Costa Rica were looking for another upset after topping Uruguay and Italy beat England in their first game. The match was pretty even for most of the first half as both teams had a decent amount of possession but neither could find the opener. With 40 minutes played, things seemed to happen rapidly. Costa Rica looked to have a penalty after Joel Campbell was taken down in the box by Giorgio Chiellini but the referee waved play on and thats just what Los Ticos did. Seconds later, Bryan Ruiz got on the end of Júnior Díaz's cross to head Costa Rica to a 1-0 lead just before half time.
The second half saw Italy dominate the time on the ball but they weren't able to to find an equalizer as Costa Rica did a good job defending and pressuring Italy during their time on the ball. Costa Rica were able to hold on to a 1-0 win which punched their ticket to the knockout stage with also securing England's trip home.
Takeways:
Man of the Match: Bryan Ruiz
Ruiz was dynamic on the right wing for Los Ticos. He caused a lot of problems for the Italian defense and scored the goal that send Costa Rica through. He's combined well with Campbell so far this World Cup and they'll need to play well if Costa Rica are going to advance past the round of 16.
Mario Balotelli didn't seem to bring his scoring boots today after playing well against Italy. The Azzurri will need to convert some of the possession into goals when they face Uruguay.
Costa Rica will clinch first place in the group with a win or draw against England.
Italy will advance with a draw or win against Uruguay
Uruguay will advance with a win against Italy.
Both of those games are June 24 at noon EST.
France vs Switzerland
What looked like it was going to be an exciting match of the European neighbors turned out to be anything but that. France opened the scoring after just 17 minutes as Olivier Grioud headed home from Mathieu Valbuena's corner. On the following kick off, Valon Behrami passed right to Karim Benzema who took the ball into the Swiss box before passing off to Blaise Matuidi who doubled France's lead.
Switzerland looked to have scored after 27 minutes but Granit Xhaka was offside. The Swiss were handed another lifeline as Diego Benaglio saved Benzema's penalty in the 33rd minute. However, it was all for not as Valbuena put the game beyond a doubt as he but home Giroud's cross five minutes before halftime.
The second half was purely academic as the goals kept flowing. Benzema made it 4-0 after sticking home an excellent pass from Paul Pogba. Moussa Sissoko made it 5-0 as he scored off a nice feed from Benzema. Switzerland were able to pull two goals back in the games final ten minutes but it was way too litte, way too late as France won 5-2.
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