World Cup preview: Brazil v Costa Rica, Nigeria v Iceland, Serbia v Switzerland
Friday sees pre-tournament favourites Brazil return to the pitch for their second match, while there's some added spice in the late game between Serbia and a Switzerland.
- 1300 BST – Brazil v Costa Rica (ITV) (Group E)
- 1600 BST – Nigeria v Iceland (BBC) (Group D)
- 1900 BST – Serbia v Switzerland (BBC) (Group E)
Brazil started excellently against the Swiss, thanks to Phillipe Coutinho's sublime curler, but after Switzerland equalised the five-time World Cup winners were unable to unlock their resilient defence.
Costa Rica may look to emulate Switzerland’s tactics of roughing up Neymar out of the game but are likely to have a tougher time cancelling out the Brazilian attacks due to their weaker back line.
Nigeria, who have the youngest squad at the World Cup, disappointed in their opening match and looked particularly weak in defence where Croatian set pieces caused all sorts of mayhem.
Vice-captain Ogenyi Onazi could return to the starting line up at the expense of Oghenekaro Etebo who scored an own goal in the opening fixture, with Leicester City winger Ahmed Musa also in contention to break into the team.
Iceland, meanwhile, produced a spectacular performance against Argentina, shutting down Lionel Messi and co to earn their first ever World Cup point and bring back memories of the excellent organisation and team spirit that took them to the quarter-finals of Euro 2016. Burnley winger Johann Berg Gudmundsson sustained a muscle injury and may be replaced by Rúrik Gíslason, who is now an Instagram star after his substitute appearance against Argentina led to Brazilian actress Gabriela Lopes posting a picture of him to her 2m followers and asked, "how is it possible to be this cute?"
The lowest ranked team in Group E, Serbia triumphed in their opener thanks to a marvellous Aleksander Kolarov free kick but will face a rather different test against an equally physically imposing Switzerland side.
Vladimir Petkovic’s Swiss team were almost brutal in grinding out their draw with Brazil and are likely to name an unchanged XI against Serbia, though there are fears that dynamo Valon Behrami could miss out due to a muscle problem.
Switzerland will likely play with a more attacking style in a match that, barring an upset of monumental proportion, looks likely to decide the second team to qualify from Group E alongside Brazil.
The added spice comes from the fact that three of the Swiss team, Behrami, Xherdan Shaqiri and Granit Xhaka, are of Kosovan descent and carrying a bit of a grudge against the country that jailed Xhaka's father and from where the Behrami family were forced to flee when he was five years old.