2022 World Cup: How to watch Spain vs Costa Rica on November 23, 2022

Topics: FIFA World Cup, Spain, Costa Rica, TV Schedules, TV Listings, Streaming Info

La Roja begin their quest towards a new title against a team that will try to prove they are as good as their historic team from 2014.

One of the most interesting groups in the FIFA World Cup includes Spain and Costa Rica, two teams that will lock horns against each other in the second game of the lot and third for November 23 in the quadrennial competition.

Spain enter this tournament with their main goal being to repeat the glorious run that saw them take the title home in 2010, with a young squad led by former Barcelona coach Luis Enrique. La Roja will try to prove that this generation is as good as the one that was crowned 12 years ago, with players such as Gavi, Pedri, and Ansu Fati leading the pack despite their young age.

The same goes for Costa Rica, who have seen most of their big names hanging their boots and will make the trip to Qatar with new blood that will try to replicate the antics of those who led the team to glory in 2014. Coach Luis Fernando Suárez has come up with an interesting mix of experienced players along with a couple of veterans that turned things around for Los Ticos in the CONCACAF Qualifiers and could certainly complicate things for their rivals in this group.

This match could have a major role in the outcome of the group, since Germany and Japan will lock horns against each other hours before this match takes place. Hence, it might be crucial to find out which team they have to catch up with considering there are only two spots to be handed out in the knockout stage.

Spain vs Costa Rica - Team news

The Spanish national team make it to the World Cup with a revamped squad that will try to reach the quarterfinals for the first time since their World Cup triumph in 2010. La Roja bowed out from the Group Stage in 2014 and were eliminated by hosts Russia in the 2018 edition, meaning that this could be this generation's last chance to reach the decisive stages of the competition. The team had to replace José Gayá during the days before the competition with Alex Baldé, but other than that, coach Luis Enrique will have a full squad to choose from for this game.

On the other side of the pitch, Costa Rica seem to be living the final days of the historic generation of players that reached the last eight in 2014, led by goalkeeper Keylor Navas, Celso Borges and Bryan Ruiz, who remains as one of the key players for Los Ticos. Four years ago, Costa Rica failed to reach the KO stage after losing two of their three group matches, meaning that a win here could improve vastly their performance from the previous competition. For this game, coach Luis Fernando Suárez has announced a full squad to choose from, as there are no injury problems for the Central American side.

Spain vs Costa Rica - Head-to-head

This will be the first-ever FIFA World Cup match between these teams.
Spain and Costa Rica have faced each other three times, with two wins for Spain and one draw as a result in those games.
The last friendly game between these teams was held in 2017. The end result saw Spain claim a 5-0 win over Los Ticos.
This will be the thirteenth match for Costa Rica against European opposition in a FIFA World Cup. So far, Los Ticos have won three games, with five draws and four losses completing their tally.
Spain will play their 25th game across all competitions against CONCACAF teams. So far, La Roja has only lost once against them, with 18 wins and five draws completing their numbers.
This will be the first game for coach Luis Enrique and coach Luis Fernando Suárez against Costa Rica and Spain, respectively.