Oscar Ramirez Laments Tough Group as Costa Rica End World Cup Campaign With Respectable Draw

Costa Rica manager Oscar Ramirez said that his team were unlucky to be caught in such a difficult group after they exited the World Cup with their first goals

Costa Rica manager Oscar Ramirez said that his team were unlucky to be caught in such a difficult group after they exited the World Cup with their first goals and their first point of the tournament.

Bryan Ruiz's last minute penalty bounced in off Switzerland goalkeeper Yann Sommer to salvage a point for Los Ticos. Earlier, Kendall Waston's header had cancelled out Blerim Dzemaili's opening goal.

Ramirez focused on the FIFA world rankings as he outlined how tall the task had been for his team to go through from Group E.

"Every single match is different and you need to think about the way you want to play. Unfortunately we didn't have the chance to go through," said Ramirez, as quoted by BBC Sport.

"Our group is very tough. It is the fifth time we have been at the World Cup and I think this team has been one of the strongest.

"We could have had different results but that's the way football is. We will try to improve our results but we have played against tough teams - number two and number six in FIFA's rankings but still, we played well."

32 - Costa Rica are the last team to score at the 2018 World Cup, with their 24th shot. Bingo. #WorldCup

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 27, 2018

Brazil are 2nd and Switzerland are 6th in the latest world rankings, though Serbia are down in 34th - 11 places below Costa Rica.

Los Ticos faced an uphill task to qualify after losing their first game of the tournament to the Serbians, and their fate was confirmed with defeat to Brazil in their second match.

It is a far cry from four years ago, when Costa Rica produced one of the great World Cup underdog stories by topping their group ahead of Uruguay, Italy and England, going on to reach the last eight.