Casemiro, Marcelo, and Keylor Navas All Feature In Brazil’s 2 - 0 Win Over Costa Rica

While Marcelo and Casemiro are surely ecstatic, Keylor Navas is surely heartbroken. Brazil dominated Costa Rica and looked completely outmatched by the Brazilians. Because of this, they will not be moving on to the final 16.

Brazil was superior in every stat, holding 72% of total possession and having 22 attempted shots. Costa Rica only had 3 attempted shots all match, none were on target. It seemed that the only stat Costa Rica topped Brazil in was time spent on the floor, though Neymar tried to make it close. VAR has been a great addition so far in this World Cup.

It would literally take Brazil the entire match to score when Philippe Coutinho put one in-between Navas’ legs. It appeared the Costa Rican defense had given up in stoppage time.

While the match was surely over at 1-0, Brazil got some insurance minutes later when Neymar made it 2-0. A great play by both Roberto Firmino and Douglas Costa that was finished off by Neymar. Brazil seem to play much better when Firmino is on the pitch, he should start in place of an inconsistent Willian.

Marcelo

Played very well in today’s match. He was positioned higher up the pitch, as he usually is, though Costa Rica never really got a chance to get a solid counter-attack going. He was instrumental in helping Brazil conduct their attack. It seemed that most of Brazil’s chances came from that left side. A great game overall from a player that will be critical for the Brazilian attack.

Casemiro

Also played fairly well. He did his job and managed to do so without getting carded. He made some defensive breakups in the midfield and was good at helping Brazil stop Costa Rica from generating a fluid attack. He even had a shot on goal towards the end of the match.

Keylor Navas

Navas was undoubtedly the best player for Costa Rica and got nothing out of it. For 90 minutes, he salvaged a terrible Costa Rica performance to a draw until stoppage time happened. On Coutinho’s goal, it seemed that they had just given up and left Navas out to dry. You can’t help but feel terrible for Navas, his performance alone was worth a draw. Made a great case for man of the match.

Marcelo and Navas will be back in action next Wednesday when they take on Serbia, their final match in Group E.