Dominican Republic vs Nicaragua - prediction, team news, lineups

Dominican Republic and Nicaragua square off in their first game of the CONCACAF Nations League campaign on Thursday night.

While the home nation have secured promotion to League A after their performances during the last Nations League campaign, the visitors narrowly missed out on a quarter-final berth.

Having been one of the strongest teams in League B for the 2024-25 campaign, it came as no surprise that Dominican Republic stormed to promotion back to the top tier.

However, scoring 27 goals in six successive wins was a real statement, albeit the results coming against Bermuda, Dominica, and Antigua and Barbuda.

Although they only collected one point from a 2025 Gold Cup campaign that featured games against Suriname, Costa Rica and Mexico, they gave a positive account of themselves.

In their seven matches since, they have suffered three defeats, although positives would have been taken from only losing 1-0 to Uruguay last October.

While their only win during that time has come against Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Marcelo Neveleff will take positives from a draw versus El Salvador in March and only losing 4-2 to Panama prior to their 2026 World Cup appearance.

As far as Nicaragua are concerned, mixing it in higher company across the last 12 months has led to just one win being posted in nine matches.

That victory was against Honduras, while there have also been notable draws versus Costa Rica and South Africa.

Nevertheless, in their last four outings, Nicaragua have netted just the one goal, albeit that coming in a 3-1 defeat to Russia.

In the last Nations League campaign, Nicaragua only missed out on a quarter-final place on goal difference, highlighting that they are now comfortable at this level.

At the same time, they now have a new manager in charge in Juan Cruz Real, who was appointed in April.

Dominican Republic form (all competitions):

With Junior Firpo back in the squad, the left-sided player should make an immediate return in place of Manny Rodriguez, who is one of two players from the last XI who are not in this squad.

Former Real Madrid youngster Edgar Pujol could feature in the middle of the backline, replacing Brayan Ademan.

Neveleff could stick with the 3-3-1-3 formation that he used against Panama.

Meanwhile, Joab Gutierrez could move to wing-back for Nicaragua, with Steven Cacares being drafted in at centre-back.

Ariagner Smith and Edgar Castillo are also in contention for opportunities in the final third, depending on the formation deployed by Cruz Real.

Dominican Republic possible starting lineup:

Valdez; De Lucas, Pujol, Dollenmayer; Pineda, Rosario, Firpo; Lopez; Federico, Diaz, Reyes

Pineda; Cacares, Cano, Martinez; Gutierrez, Coronel, Moncada, Velasquez; Smith, Garcia, Castillo

Given the level of teams in this group, Dominican Republic and Nicaragua are aware that they can ill-afford to slip up. Despite having home advantage in their favour, we feel that Dominican Republic have the disadvantage of not playing at this level in the last campaign, leading us to predict a narrow victory for Nicaragua.

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