SAMARA, June 17. /TASS/. Serbia has defeated Costa Rica 1-0 a Group E game of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia’s city of Samara on Sunday.
The only goal was scored by Serbia’s defender Aleksandar Kolarov on the 56th minute.
It was the first match for Costa Rica and Servia at world tournaments.
With three points, Serbia leads Group E. Another Group E match will be played later in the day in Rostov-on-Don, between Brazil and Switzerland.
A total of 32 national football teams are participating in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, held in 11 cities across Russia between June 14 and July 15.
The teams were divided into eight groups, with four in each, and the top two from their relevant groups will proceed to the next round, known as the playoffs or the knockout stage, to keep vying for the much-coveted FIFA World Cup Trophy.
Russia is holding its first time ever edition of the FIFA World Cup, which kicked off in Moscow with a spectacular opening show at the Luzhniki Stadium on the night of June 14.
Russia selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup and they are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.
