The second half of the Confederations Cup double header on Wednesday comes from Sochi as the North American champions Mexico take on the best of Oceania in the form of New Zealand in another big clash in Group A.
Mexico performed well against Portugal to claim a 2-2 draw in their first match and a win here will have them in a healthy position going forward. New Zealand lost their opening game and need to win here to stay alive in the competition.
Mexico
Plucky would be the word I would use for Mexico in their first match although there were certainly times where they dominated against Euro 2016 winners Portugal and on another day they could easily have turned over Cristiano Ronaldo and co. A lack of defensive stability cost them for once so they’ll need to work on that.
I love watching Mexico these days. I love the freedom they play with in the middle of the park and they never lack for men in the opposition box which is great to see. It can leave them exposed at times but that is all part of the excitement and entertainment and hopefully we get to see more of it here.
New Zealand
Heading into the tournament you would have thought that Russia would be the easier of the three opponents for New Zealand so it is a massive concern that the All Whites were pretty ruthlessly outclassed by the competition hosts in that match. New Zealand looked all over the place at the back and offered nothing going forward.
I don’t expect New Zealand to be beating these top sides when they come up against them so infrequently but I do expect them to be organised, hard to beat and offering something at the other end no matter how little it may be. That definitely wasn’t the case against Russia which was disappointing.
Team News
Juan Carlos Osorio is expected to change his entire side for this match as he looks to keep his squad fresh not just for the remainder of this tournament but also the Gold Cup which follows. Oribe Peralta could start.
New Zealand may be forced into changes given how poor they were in their first match but they don’t have Winston Reid to call upon. Tom Doyle could be one player who is brought into the side.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
Whichever team Mexico put out here it is hard to see them not winning but with places available in the side going forward in this event and especially in the Gold Cup those coming in should be eager to prove their worth.
New Zealand were bang ordinary in their first match and we have to point that out. Russia looked like cutting them open every time they attacked and while I anticipate them being better, through it being hard to be worse as much as anything else, I still don’t think they’ll get close to a Mexico side who have a verve and a tempo that is hard to challenge. I fancy Mexico will get the job done by a fair margin here.
Tips
Back Mexico (-2.25AH) to beat New Zealand for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Paddy Power
Back them here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017
