RECIFE, June 30 — Forward Christian Bolanos and defender Michael Umana returned to Costa Rica’s start line-up for the last 16 World Cup clash against Greece in Recife today.
Bolanos came on as a late substitute in the scoreless draw with England last week which, along with Italy’s 1-0 defeat to Uruguay, secured Costa Rica’s status as Group D winners.
The FC Copenhagen player is expected to give the Costa Ricans some pace and energy up front while Umana’s freshness, having missed out against England, will be a plus to Jorge Luis Pinto’s defensive backline.
Celtic striker Georgios Samaras, who scored the late penalty in a 2-1 win over Ivory Coast that put Greece into the last 16 for the first time, leads the Greek front line alongside Dimitros Salpingidis.
Costa Rica
Keylor Navas; Christian Gamboa, Oscar Duarte, Giancarlo Gonzalez, Michael Umana, Junior Díaz; Bryan Ruiz (capt), Celso Borges; Yeltsin Tejeda; Christian Bolanos; Joel Campbell.
Coach: Jorge Luis Pinto (COL)
Greece
Orestis Karnezis; Vasilis Torosidis, Konstantinos Manolas, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Jose Holebas; Dimitrios Salpingidis, Ioannis Maniatis, Andreas Samaris, Giorgos Karagounis (capt), Lazaros Christodoulopoulos; Georgios Samaras.
Coach: Fernando Santos (POR)
Referee: Benjamin Williams (AUS). — AFP
