The champions of South Africa and South America meet to open up Group B of the Confederations Cup on Sunday evening when Cameroon take on Chile in Moscow. This is the first match in the group and should be a good starter.
Germany also sit in this section of the draw so both sides will know they can’t really afford to lose this match even though the World Cup champions aren’t at full strength in this tournament.
Cameroon
There was plenty of concern heading into the Africa Cup of Nations earlier in the year for Cameroon with big names requesting to be left out of the squad but if anything all that did was galvanise those who were picked and the outcome was that they went on to deservedly win the tournament and qualify for this.
A large part of their success in Gabon earlier in the year was their defensive efforts although that should be accompanied by the realistic comment that they didn’t really face a potent attack at any stage in the tournament but even so they defended well. They lacked something in forward areas at times and I’m interested to see if that has improved here.
Chile
The South Americans head into this tournament off the back of successive Copa America wins. They host the first of them and then had to go to America 12 months later to win the other but they were comfortably the best side in the tournament on both occasions and not only arrive here as genuine contenders but will be that for the World Cup next year too.
This isn’t the Chile side of 3-4 years ago, an all-out attacking machine but they still don’t lack for personnel going forward. Some of the stars of the tournament are in their attacking ranks. It will be interesting to see how they go defensively as that is very much their weak spot although we might not see that here.
Team News
Ambroise Oyongo suffered a bad injury last week so he is out of the tournament which leaves Cameroon looking for a left-back. Vincent Aboubakar is looking for a run right from the start.
Chile have a doubt surfacing over Alexis Sanchez although every chance is being given to him to make it to the side. If he is out Angelo Sagal could partner Eduardo Vargas up front. Claudio Bravo is still out injured.
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Betting
I enjoyed watching Cameroon in the Africa Cup of Nations but I fancy this could be a step too far for them. They suffered a 4-0 wazzacking by Colombia last week which suggests they might be slightly out of their depth at this level.
Chile never had the best preparation for this tournament with a defeat to Romania last week but they were down to 10 men for much of the game so we might be able to forgive them that. Having won the last two Copa America’s and taken Brazil to penalties in the World Cup we know this lot are a tournament team.
I expect Chile to have too much attacking firepower for this Cameroon side. Chile are likely to spend a lot of time in possession of the ball and Cameroon could struggle to impose themselves on the game. I’ll take the Copa America champions to get their Confederations Cup off to a comfortable winning start.
Tips
WON – Back Chile (-1AH) to beat Cameroon for a 4/10 stake at 1.98 with Unibet
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