On February 3, Beijing time, the 11th round of the North American Division of the World Preliminary Round, Panama challenged Mexico away. Throughout the game, Panama defended well, but it was a hundred and one, and sent a penalty in the 80th minute. In the end, Panama lost 0-1 to the opponent, missed the world preliminary round for two consecutive wins, the probability of promotion fell to 50%, and also gave Costa Rica a big gift.
Costa Rica took the lead in this round, relying on Joel Campbell's goal to beat Jamaica 1-0 away from home to a life-saving 3 points. Three hours later, it was Panama's turn to play, and their opponent was the mighty Mexico.
In fact, Panama played very bravely, taking the initiative in the first half, creating a total of 6 shots on goal, but failing to score. Easy to fight again, Panama's physical fitness gradually declined, can only take the initiative to recycle the fence, hoping to hold 1 point.
As the saying goes, a hundred dense and one loose, passive beating is often easy to make mistakes. In the 80th minute, the Panamanian defender was in a hurry to bring down Reinz in the penalty area, and the referee did not hesitate to award a penalty. Raul Jimenez then hit an easy shot and Panama fell behind 1-0.
In the last 10 minutes, Panama fought back, but it was powerless, and finally lost 0-1. The 0-1 game allowed Panama to miss two consecutive World Preliminary Round wins and fail to beat Mexico in the World Preliminary Round for 22 consecutive years.
With Panama losing, Canada, the United States and Mexico are in the top three of the table, with their probability of qualifying for the World Cup all exceeding 99%! Panama ranked 4th with 17 points, costa Rica ranked 5th with a 1 point difference, and the competition entered a white-hot stage.
Chinese fans are no strangers to Costa Rica, they have played in the World Cup a total of 5 times, especially in 2002, they were in the same group as the national football team, and defeated the national football team 2-0 in the first match. In the 2014 and 2018 World Cups, Costa Rica participated and achieved a good result in the top 8.
At present, the probability of Costa Rica qualifying for the World Cup rises to 30.84%, while Panama drops to 50.34%, and the probability of being out of the game is half. In the last three rounds, Costa Rica and Panama will have a fierce competition, both teams will play against the United States and Canada, and the outcome of these two matches will undoubtedly have a decisive impact.
Panama is currently ranked 63rd in the world, and the value of the whole team is only more than 1 million euros higher than the national football team, and the paper strength is almost the same. It is worth mentioning that Panama, like the national football team, has only participated in the World Cup once.
In 2018, Panama made its debut, grouping with Belgium, England and Tunisia, and eventually lost three consecutive games. For a population of just 4.31 million, it's hard to look forward to their second World Cup trip.