Costa boss: England are contenders

Costa Rica boss Oscar Ramirez believes England are among the main contenders for World Cup glory in Russia.

Ramirez’s side take on England at Elland Road tonight before completing their own preparation for the tournament with a final warm-up in Belgium on Monday.

“England have a very good squad at the moment. It’s a very physical squad,” said Ramirez (pictured).

“They have a lot of great characteristics – their combination play, their defence is very good, they often like to trick the attackers.

“They are also a very modern squad and one that has a lot of hope.

“England are one of many sides – Germany, Brazil, Spain, even France, who all have a lot of potential at this tournament.”

Former Fulham midfielder Bryan Ruiz remains doubtful for tonight, after missing Sunday’s 3-0 win against Northern Ireland.

Ramirez expects Ruiz, fellow midfielder Christian Bolanos and forward Marco Urena to all prove their fitness in time for their opening World Cup tie against Serbia on June 17.

“Since Brazil (where Los Ticos reached the quarter-finals and only lost on penalties to Holland after a 0-0 draw), we’re a different side now, we’ve got different strengths,” Ramirez added.

“But I know we’ve got a squad which is very excited to build on the achievements we had in 2014.

“In Brazil, not only did we get to the knockout stage, we won the group and we were excited to see what we were capable of.

“It has given us a very good reference point of where we are in world football and what we can achieve.

“It’s going to be a very difficult group, possibly more so than the one we faced in Brazil, but the dream is still there.

“The dream is still to chase and we hope to go forward and give a good account of ourselves and hopefully have the same happiness that we had in 2014.”