Women's World Cup predictions for Switzerland v Norway and Japan v Costa Rica

Where to watch

Switzerland Women v Norway Women
ITV1, 9am Tuesday

Japan Women v Costa Rica Women
ITV1, 6am Wednesday

Best bets

Norway to beat Switzerland
1pt 23-20 Betfair

Japan to win both halves v Costa Rica
1pt 4-6 BoyleSports

Women's World Cup predictions

Group A is in the spotlight again at the Women's World Cup on Tuesday and Norway will be looking to recover from their shock opening loss to New Zealand when they face Switzerland in Hamilton.

Norway ultimately buckled in front of a partisan home crowd last time out, losing 1-0 to the tournament co-hosts at Eden Park, but Hege Riise's side have too much individual quality in their ranks, especially via Ada Hegerberg and Guro Reiten, to stay down for long.

They missed a couple of decent chances in the New Zealand match with little separating the sides and they look overpriced to beat Switzerland.

The Swiss came into this tournament winless in their last six matches, having not tasted victory since their last-gasp triumph over Wales in the tournament's qualifying playoffs, and their triumph over the Philippines was only their second at a Women's World Cup.

Japan marked themselves out as dark horses for the Women's World Cup with their 5-0 demolition of Zambia on Saturday and a similarly authoritative performance is expected from Futoshi Ikeda's side when they face Costa Rica.

Champions in 2011 and runners-up in 2015, Japan endured an underwhelming last-16 exit in France four years ago. But they exhibited fluency and ruthlessness in that win over Zambia last time out, racking up 25 shots, 11 of which were on target.

They denied their opponents a single shot in the match and that followed a 5-0 win over Panama in the nation's final warm-up competition earlier this month.

Japan know how to find the net and they will want to improve their goal difference ahead of a final Group C showdown with Spain next Monday, so expect another comfortable win over Costa Rica, who lost their first game 3-0 against La Roja.

Japan have won both halves in four of their last five matches and are a value bet to do so again in Dunedin on Wednesday morning.

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