The semi-finals of the Copa America get underway on Tuesday night when the tournament heads to the venue where the next World Cup final will be played out as the defending champions Argentina go up against Canada at MetLife Stadium in New York.
These two sides met in the opening match of the tournament where Argentina scored a couple of second half goals to win 2-0. Canada have got better since then and Argentina will need to show they can handle them for a second time.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Premier Sports 1 channel in the UK with the coverage starting up at 12.50am ahead of the 1am kick off in New York.
Argentina
We haven’t seen Argentina really put a side to the sword in this competition but in the early stages of it they were pretty comfortable. That certainly wasn’t the case against Ecuador in the quarter final though and on another day once it went to penalties they could easily have come a cropper. To their credit, they held their nerve and made it back into the final four but you would think at some point we are going to need to see them ignite a little more than they have done.
I think it would be wrong to say that their attack has been flat. They have created a fair number of chances in this tournament but their real star players such as Lionel Messi and Julian Alvarez haven’t really shown up yet. It would be a good time for that pair to start contributing and not leave the goalscoring to the Martinez’s. Defensively Argentina looked good in the group stage but Ecuador showed that you can get at them should you be prepared to take the risk to do so.
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Canada
This has already been something of a breakthrough campaign for the Canadians, one which you have to give them full credit for because they could easily have just used the tournament as a fact finding exercise for new coach Jesse Marsch. It has been nothing of the sort though and the longer the competition has gone on they have got better each match that they have played, as you would probably have expected when you consider they had only played two friendlies under the former Leeds boss prior to this event.
In each of their matches, Canada have been comfortable taking the match to their opponent. Even in their opening match of the event against Argentina they had seven shots in the first half of that game and if you consider that they have improved since then, they are entitled to think they have a chance here. Where there is oceans of room for improvement is finding a clinical edge in front of goal but if they can convert one or two chances they are not without hope of the major upset here.
Betting
It is hard to see Argentina not winning this semi-final both on the quality that they have in their team and also the experience that they have got in playing in major semi-finals but you are not going to get rich on backing them to come out on top. In the first game between these two I took Argentina to win to nil but the way they defended against Ecuador I’m not sure I want to be on that either and while Argentina to win and under goals is an option, I’ve just got this weird feeling that Canada are going to have a go here.
Canada had 10 shots in that first game against Argentina and haven’t really sat back at any point. They are not daft. They know they can’t absorb pressure against the world champions and come out on top so I think Canada will look to go forward. They have a match shots line of 7.5 and so far in this tournament they have reached 10, five, 10 and 16 shots with the five coming against a Peru side who offered nothing in the competition. Jesse Marsch is a front foot coach and Canada are going to have to fight fire with fire. I think they get to eight shots in a semi-final I ultimately expect them to lose.
Tips
Back Canada – Over 7.5 shots for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with Unibet
