The selections of Haiti and Costa Rica of Miguel Herrera They will play this Thursday a crucial match in their aspirations to stay alive by qualifying directly for the World Cup 2026 and in which a defeat could mean goodbye.
The match will be played at the Ergilio Sato stadium, in Curacao, where the Haitian team plays as a home team due to the impossibility of using its field due to the social crisis that the country is going through.
The match is transcendental for both teams since with two rounds left to play in group C, Costa Rica adds 6 points and Haiti 5, by behind Honduras (8 points) and above Nicaragua (1 point), which is already eliminated.
Only first place will qualify directly for the World Cup, while Second place could aspire to one of the two tickets granted by Concacaf for the play-offs intercontinental.
A Costa Rican victory will leave Haiti out of any possibility of qualifying directly; A tie would leave the table ready for Honduras to get the ticket with a victory in Nicaragua, while A Haitian victory will leave Costa Rica almost out of the World Cup.
For this match, the Costa Rica coach, the Mexican Miguel Herrera called several players with World Cup experience to balance the team which in the first days of the tie was made up of a large majority of young footballers called to lead the generational change of the squad.
Goalkeeper Keylor Navas, forward Joel Campbell and midfielder Celso Borges are World Cup winners from Brazil 2014, Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022, while the defenders Francisco Calvo and Kendall Waston They played in the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.
Added to them is the youth and good form of players like the American New York City’s top scorer, Alonso Martínez; the Spartak Moscow striker, Manfred Ugalde, and the Belgian Westerloo winger, Josimar Alcócer, who have been key pieces during the tie.
For its part, the Haitian team, led by French coach Sébastien Migné, will try to repeat what they did in their visit to Costa Rica when they tied 3-3 with a great night by the Iranian Esteghlal forward Duckens Nazon, author of the three goals for the Caribbean team.
Nazon is called upon to command Haiti’s attack together with the attacker of the Greek AEK Athens, Frantzy Pierrot, and accompanied from midfield by the English Wolverhampton player Jean Ricner Bellegarde.
*With information from EFE.
Continue reading:
– Miguel Herrera and Costa Rica take a break in the Concacaf qualifiers
– Suriname, Curacao and Haiti dominate the Concacaf qualifying round instead of Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala
– Miguel Herrera is against the ropes, but does not deny the result