Costa Rica supervisor Óscar Ramírez​ has claimed that his aspect's ​World Cup marketing campaign is much from over, regardless of their disappointing 1-0 loss to Serbia of their first match of the group levels.

The scoreline maybe flattered Los Ticos, who struggled to achieve a foothold within the recreation due to Serbia's spectacular passing strikes and their stodgy defence. Aleksandar Kolorov's beautiful free kick proved sufficient to earn his aspect the win, leaving Ramírez's aspect realizing they'll want a good outcome towards both Switzerland or Brazil to have a probability of escaping their group.

Speaking to the press after the defeat, by way of Sports Mole, the 53-year-old responded defiantly to ideas that his aspect had blown their possibilities of progressing to the knockout levels, stating: "We play towards the second and sixth-placed groups within the FIFA rankings. It's going to be troublesome, however I simply informed my workforce: 'This is not over.'

"We should've capitalised on our opportunities like they did. We had our tactical plan in place and with the subs, we tried to attack them on the wings. We tried to execute our plan but they managed to score on a set piece. What can you do?"

Costa Rica's perfromance was a far cry from the type of play that noticed them shock the world in 2014, as they topped a group containing England, Italy and Uruguay earlier than finally getting knocked out on penalties by the Netherlands within the quarter-finals. Los Ticos will now put together to face Brazil subsequent Friday, the place Ramírez's males will want to vastly enhance.

Meanwhile, ​Serbia supervisor Mladen Krstajić praised the constructive ambiance amongst his squad following the victory, claiming that togetherness of the aspect was pivotal to their cohesive efficiency. The 44-year-old additionally admitted he was relieved by the outcome, because it was his first recreation managing at a main match.