CRISTIAN GAMBOA
off the ball. He said: “We surprised people but Uruguay, Italy and England underestimated us. They didn’t think Costa Rican football was any good and didn’t prepare. They thought they would beat us.
“We believed in ourselves but never said it loudly. We beat Uruguay in the first game.
“They had been in the semi-finals in 2010 and that gave us confidence. Then we beat Italy, drew with England and won the group. We then beat Greece in the last 16.
“After Brazil 2014 everyone knew about Costa Rican football. The players got into good leagues such as Spain, Italy and I got a move to England. That helped us to put Costa Rica on the football map.
“Keylor Navas plays every week for Real Madrid in goal. Bryan Ruiz, our captain who scored against Italy, is at Sporting Lisbon, Celso Borges is at Deportivo La Coruna and Giancarlo Gonzales is in Serie A with Bologna.
“I don’t worry about who we play in Russia. I don’t think about facing Brazil or Switzerland.
“All we are thinking about is Serbia in the first match and all I’m thinking about is getting into the squad for the finals.
“The first match we will have in the finals is against Serbia and our coach wanted to see us against a national team that is similar. He thinks that is Scotland, this country plays at the same level in European football.”
Gamboa earned a £2million move to West Brom from Rosenborg after the 2014 World Cup finals and 18 appearances in two seasons at the English club prompted Brendan Rodgers to recruit the right-back as cover for Mikael Lustig.
The fact Lustig is also going to the World Cup finals with Sweden is not a cause of dressing-room envy at Lennoxtown. Gamboa believes it proves the strength of the Scots in Rodgers’s treble-winning squad.
He said: “Even if Scott Brown has stopped, Scotland still have a good future. Guys like Stuart Armstrong, Callum McGregor, James Forrest and Leigh Griffiths are good players.
“Scotland are doing much better now because they get a lot of new young players.
“It’s a shame Kieran Tierney can’t play on Friday. Before I came here I didn’t know much about him but he has developed incredibly. He represents everything about this club.
“I love being at Celtic. Sometimes you don’t play but that is football. I just hope to be involved in another treble. A double treble would be history. That would be nice.”