The last set of opening group games take place at the Copa America on Monday night and we begin with the second and third ranked teams in the section when much fancied Colombia take on Paraguay in Houston.
Colombia head into this tournament on a lengthy unbeaten run and will fancy their chances of going deep in the event. Paraguay know that as the third seeds they will need to pull off a shock somewhere if they are going to make it into the knockout stages and on paper this might be their best chance.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Premier Sports 1 channel in the UK with the coverage beginning at 10.50pm ahead of the 11pm kick off. Bookmaker live streams will also show the game.
Colombia
When you consider that Colombia arrive at this tournament off the back of a 23 game unbeaten run dating back the better part of two years, it is remarkable really that more people aren’t talking them up as strong challengers for the title. The Colombians probably won’t mind that because they can travel under the radar initially, although you would imagine that it won’t take long for them to be noticed and expectation to rise on them, especially were they to do an emphatic job on Paraguay here and go a long way to securing a spot in the knockout stages.
The thing I like about this Colombia side are present is how they are able to get men forward and look to score goals without really abandoning their defensive shape. This is a rich generation of forward players coming out of Colombia with the likes of Luis Diaz and Jhon Duran playing their trade in the Premier League. Their stocks are so deep that they have moved on from the likes of Luis Muriel and Cucho Hernandez, the latter who can’t stop scoring in MLS. If they hold up for three weeks defensively then Colombia have a real shot at this title.
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Paraguay
It is hard to know what to expect of Paraguay in this tournament. Had they been drawn in any of the other groups then there could have been a genuine case to be made that we should expect them to come out of that section but they have run into the toughest second seed in the event in their opponents here and if Brazil turn up to the tournament and play like we know they can, or should do on paper, then this is going to be a tough ask. They are hard to break down though so if something falls for them at the other end at the right time you just never know.
The big issue for Paraguay is a ridiculous lack of goals. They have played six matches in World Cup qualifying in the South America region and only scored one goal. The positive is they have only conceded three but they’re not getting anywhere with a goal output. They did manage to beat Panama in their last warm up game 1-0 and will hope Premier League pair Miguel Almiron and Jose Enciso can get them into dangerous areas but nobody in their squad has double figures for international goals so that is a concern.
Betting
I’m pretty keen on Colombia in this tournament and I am hoping that they get off to a winning start. There is every chance that they will progress with a draw because their goal threat will get them a better goal difference down the line but they will be eyeing up winning the group and making life easier for themselves. Paraguay will be tough to break down but this Colombia group of forwards have to have as good a chance of anyone of opening them up.
These two met in World Cup qualifying back in November when a penalty was enough for Colombia to win 1-0 and their meeting before that a year earlier saw the Colombians win 2-0. Those are the sort of scores I think are in play here. The 1-0 is certainly a runner in a rusty Colombia win so the Asian line wouldn’t yield a full win in taking that so I’m going to use the paucity of goals at both ends in Paraguay matches to our advantage and side with the favourites to win but with fewer than 3.5 goals in the game at odds against.
Tips
Back Colombia to win and under 3.5 goals for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Boylesports
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