It’s fair to say most Brazil fans are expecting more from Vinicius Junior and he hasn’t reached the same heights for the national side as he has done for Real Madrid.

However, he is now the main man in the side and even though he hasn’t scored in his last eight appearances for Brazil, he is still creating high-quality chances.

He averages 0.87 shots on target over the past few seasons of international football and his most recent game against the USA, he hit four, as well as one against Mexico in his 16-minute substitute appearance and two against England in a March friendly.

With Brazil expected to have most of the possession, territory and attacking play, he has a great chance of landing this.

There have been eight or more corners in eight of Brazil’s last 10 games. Costa Rica games have matched or exceeded that total in four of their last five games. In a 10-game sample, both sides have had nine out of 10 of their games see more than six corners, and both average 4.4 and 4.3 corners per game respectively.

Although Brazil are heavy favourites for the game, they’ve conceded at least three corners in seven of their last 10 matches and so we like the opportunity, not only as we expect Brazil to land a significant number but also we anticipate Costa Rica to show some attacking intent and create opportunities down the flanks for  themselves.

Brazil are being priced as a 1.1 favourite to win the game but the odds are far too short against a team who has held Uruguay to a 0-0 draw and scored against a strong Argentine side.

In the opening game of the tournament where there will be some caginess and the inevitable pressure faced by Brazil in contrast to the Costa Ricans who no one will expect to win, the handicap line is favourable here.

The Brazilians have only beaten a team by more than a two-goal margin twice in their last 18 games and only kept a clean sheet on four occasions in that time.

Either a low-scoring game or a genuine possibility of a Costa Rica goal make this a strong play at the prices.

We are expecting a Brazil performance that dominates the ball, territory and shooting opportunities.

However, Allison had to make six saves against the USA in their last warm-up match and saved twice against Mexico while conceding twice. Brazil’s keeper had to make five saves in their March friendly against England and eight against Colombia in a November qualifier.

Although these are all stronger teams than Costa Rica, they were still able to manage three shots on target against Uruguay and Argentina in March and June of this year and shows they can still be a threat to the bigger sides on the break.

When playing against Brazil, opposition defensive lines in the Mexico and Spain games gave away seven and nine fouls respectively.

Vinicius has been fouled at least once in 10 of his last 11 games and will be the prime target for some Costa Rican physicality in this encounter.

He has been fouled at least three times in games against Colombia in qualifying and Senegal and Morocco in the last World Cup.

However, his role now is more important than it was back then and he will be the driving force in Brazil’s attack.

The Copa America has begun with an unsurprisingly high foul count, with only Mexico v Jamaica failing to have more than 20 fouls.

We have seen this tactic from some of the weaker nations trying to turn the games into a scrappy physical battle to break up the play, with Ecuador v Venezuela seeing a whopping 34 fouls and Venezuela as the underdogs coming out on top.

Peru also employed this tactic to great effect, with 18 fouls against Chile and ending up earning a valuable point.

Costa Rica are particularly prolific at fouling, with 24 in their last warm-up game against Grenada. They hit 14 fouls against Uruguay and 20 against Argentina and they will need to be smart at tactically fouling the Brazilians to manage any threatening attacks.