Los Ticos have already stunned Uruguay and Italy in Brazil, but it was at Italia ‘90 where they made their mark on world stage

Costa Rica are hardly alone in inflicting World Cup ignominy on Scotland. Still, their prominence at this year’s tournament will revive grim Scottish memories of a Genoa encounter on 11 June 1990.

This was the nations’ opening group fixture in Italy. A 1-0 Costa Rica success resonates as much to this day with Scotland’s followers as Archie Gemmill’s 1978 wonder-goal against Holland or David Narey’s spectacular toe-poke past Brazil’s Waldir Peres four years later in Spain.

Perhaps Costa Rica’s 2014 success offers an element of belated relief to the Scotland coaching staff. “Costa Rica were a good team then and they are a good team now,” says Craig Brown, who was assistant to Andy Roxburgh in the Scotland set-up at the 1990 World Cup. “You don’t get to World Cups unless you are a good side and it was arguably even harder to do that in 1990. Costa Rica came through an arduous qualifying campaign, just as they did this time round.

“People forget that they also beat a Sweden team which included a lot of star names in 1990 and qualified from the group stage; so it was about more than just a result against us. They only lost 1-0 to Brazil. Cameroon, from memory, weren’t particularly acknowledged by anybody that year and they made it as far as a narrow quarter-final defeat to England.”

Costa Rica’s masterstroke was to appoint Bora Milutinovic, who led Mexico to the quarter-finals at the 1986 World Cup, as their head coach three months before the tournament. Milutinovic is one of only two coaches to take charge of five different countries at the World Cup. “He had an excellent record with smaller nations,” says Brown. “He took four of those teams into the second round of World Cups, which shows the coaching talent he had.”

Inaccurate perceptions, Brown believes, are still an issue when it comes to certain international teams. “Costa Rica isn’t a traditional football nation so people from the outside have underestimated them,” he adds. “But there was no question that we did that. You could argue we were over-prepared for that game.

“There was anger, there was disappointment. I still remember that vividly. The media did and still do influence fans. If they say things then supporters tend to buy into it. The fans were all told Costa Rica were a poor team; it was a black-and-white scenario where apparently they were only there to be thumped. The reality was different.

“It was similar when we lost to Morocco in 1998; nobody wanted to know that they were the champions of Africa. The Tartan Army are brilliant but they can also be highly critical. On the way to our next game in 1990, against Sweden, there were ‘P45 Roxburgh’ posters on display. Then, of course, we went out and deservedly beat the Swedes.”

Scotland’s plans for Costa Rica had been disrupted by an injury to Davie Cooper, who did not feature at all in Italy. Having declared himself fit, the Rangers defender Richard Gough then limped off at half-time.

“Andy Roxburgh had a habit of calling Alan McInally ‘Ally.’ He did that when reading out the team and Ally McCoist [who started on the bench] thought he was playing, not McInally,” Brown recalls. “Maybe that was a sign of things to come. We had been to Genoa to watch the derby there, taken the players to that at a full stadium. The Scotland squad was announced on to the big screen; it was all just about familiarising the players with the venue.

“We had a superb training base, £100,000 had been spent on the pitch alone there, just to get it ready for us. So everything looked perfect before the game, the preparations had been first class. We hadn’t watched Costa Rica in the flesh but had done on video, time and again. It wasn’t like we were outplayed in the game at all. Mo Johnston should have scored a couple.

“If you took the game in isolation we were unlucky, albeit you couldn’t really say that at the time. McInally didn’t track a run after we were attacking, they broke up the park and scored.”

Having gone on to manage Scotland himself, Brown has sympathy with Roy Hodgson’s position. “I know Roy very well,” he says. “I have been on coaching courses with him. When I was at Derby County [as football consultant in 2006], he was the manager of Finland and I took a group to visit their training base. Roy gave us total access – he was first class, as he always is.

“Nowadays, the preparation for these matches is even more detailed than ever before. Whatever else has happened, there is no question whatsoever of Roy not having his team properly prepared for this game. He will make sure of that.”