This is the first encounter between Spain and Costa Rica at the Fifa World Cup. In their three meetings – all friendlies – Spain are unbeaten against the Central American side (W2 D1).
Spain are facing Costa Rica for the fourth time since 2011. Their three previous head-to-heads have produced 12 goals, an average of four per game.
Spain have qualified for their 16th Fifa World Cup, and their 12th in a row, their longest ever streak of participations in the tournament. Only Brazil (22), Germany (18) and Argentina (13) are currently on longer runs.
Spain won the Fifa World Cup in 2010. This is the only time they have reached the semis in their last 13 participations. They have, nevertheless, finished top of their group in four of their last five appearances.
Spain’s next goal at the Fifa World Cup will be their 100th in the tournament. José Iraragorri scored their first in 1934, in a 3-1 round of 16 victory against Brazil.
This is Costa Rica’s sixth Fifa World Cup participation – they have only failed to qualify once this century, that was in 2010. Los Ticos will be attempting to reach the knockout stages for the third time after 1990 (round of 16) and 2014 (quarterfinals).
Costa Rica are winless in their last six Fifa World Cup matches (D4 L2), their longest drought in the competition. They have also failed to find the net in four of those six games.
37 per cent of Costa Rica’s goals at the Fifa World Cup have been scored via headers (7 out of 19); since their first tournament in 1990, only Ivory Coast (38 per cent) have scored a higher per centage of their goals via headers than the Costa Ricans (37 per cent) among nations to have scored more than 10 goals in that time.
Ferran Torres scored four goals in qualifying for the 2022 World Cup, at least twice as many as any other Spain player, also attempting more shots than any of his teammates (19). Aged 22, he could become Spain’s youngest World Cup goalscorer since his namesake Fernando Torres scored three times at the 2006 edition, also when aged 22.
Luis Enrique made 12 appearances at the Fifa World Cup as a player for Spain across the 1994, 1998 and 2002 tournaments, scoring two goals. This will be his second major tournament (World Cup and EUROs) as Spain manager, after EURO 2020, in which he led them to the semifinals. Spain scored the joint-most goals of any side in that tournament (13, level with winners Italy).
Costa Rica captain Bryan Ruiz has featured in eight World Cup matches across the 2014 and 2018 editions, with only Christian Bolaños (9) playing more games at the World Cup for Los Ticos. At 37, he would be the oldest player to feature for Costa Rica at the tournament (current oldest is Erick Lonnis in 2002, aged 36).