Preview: Costa Rica vs. Panama - prediction, team news, form guide

Costa Rica will aim to improve their chances of qualifying for the FIFA World Cup 2022, when they welcome Panama to the Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica.

The visitors, meanwhile, find themselves in the sole playoff spot, but only a poorer goal difference to Mexico leaves them outside the three automatic qualification places.

Match preview

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Sitting five points adrift of Panama who occupy the playoff place, Costa Rica could significantly boost their chances of sixth World Cup finals appearance with a win on Thursday.

After suffering consecutive defeats to the United States and Canada, Los Ticos got their qualifying campaign back on track in their most recent fixture.

In their last outing, Luis Fernando Suarez's team played host to Honduras and grabbed the opener through Oscar Duarte before Rommel Quioto restored parity for the visitors.

With the contest drifting towards an uneventful conclusion, Gerson Torres struck in the fifth minute of stoppage time to snatch all three points for Costa Rica and in the process, rekindle their qualification hopes.

Thursday's aim will be to collect consecutive victories and having picked up seven of their nine points on home turf, Suarez will know the importance of obtaining a positive result against Panama if they are to qualify for their third consecutive World Cup finals.

As for Panama, they are bidding to qualify for their second World Cup finals and with six qualifiers left to play, Los Canaleros can be pleased with their efforts so far.

Thomas Christiansen's side have picked up 14 points from their eight games, with only a poorer goal difference keeping them out of the automatic qualification spots.

They collected six of those 14 points in the last round of qualifiers in November as they came from two goals down to beat Honduras 3-2 before beating El Salvador at home.

Los Canaleros also trailed against El Salvador courtesy of Jairo Henriquez's opener in the first minute, but two second goals in quick succession from Cecilio Waterman and Freddy Gondola helped Panama to a 2-1 victory.

Only Mexico have collected more away points in the third round of qualifying than the six Panama have collected, and a positive result on Thursday would go a long way to cement their place in the playoff spot.

Team News

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Costa Rica

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Doubtful:

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Panama

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We say: Costa Rica X-Y Panama

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