The knockout stages of the Copa America get underway in the early hours of Friday morning UK time when the tournament hosts Brazil take on Paraguay for a place in the semi-finals of the South American showpiece.
All the eyes will be on Brazil here to see if they can make it through to the last four of their own party, but Paraguay have a record of being tough to beat and it will be interesting to see if they can dispose of the home side.
Brazil
It took the home side a while to warm up to the task in this tournament but they came to the party in style in their final group match against Peru and now their task is to continue to ride that wave and maybe even improve on it if that is possible. They might have been gifted one or two of their goals in that game but it was a much more positive display from them, the sort we expect to see from their array of talented footballers.
Although we didn’t see them at their best in the initial stages of the tournament, Brazil still haven’t conceded a goal in the event so there isn’t a whole lot wrong with them. It might just be that my expectation of them is so high that it felt like they had been disappointing. Either way, the pressure is on them to deliver the goods now as there is no second chance from here on in.
Paraguay
45 minutes into this tournament and Paraguay were looking very good. It is fair to say that the next 225 minutes haven’t gone to plan but courtesy of results elsewhere going for them they have made it into this quarter final even though they haven’t won a match thus far. Now would be a pretty good time to break their duck in terms of wins in this year’s competition is concerned.
Paraguay have shown that they can score goals in this tournament which is one positive but it isn’t that which is where they will be tested here. The acid test is going to come defensively with all eyes on them to see if they can repel this Brazilian attacking core. It will be intriguing to see if they dare risk fighting fire with fire or whether they are going to look to contain for 90 minutes and get it to penalties.
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Team News
Brazil will be without the suspended Jose Casemiro while Fernandinho is injured so Allan is likely to be the midfield anchor alongside Arthur. Richarlison and David Neres will be looking to return having sat out the Peru match.
Richard Sanchez is in contention to start for a Paraguay side that are unlikely to make too many changes in the contest as they look to mastermind what would be a huge upset both to the home nation and the tournament.
Betting
I’m not sure we are going to see too much in the way of attacking intent from Paraguay in this match and I just wonder if Brazil will look to leave something in the tank with a potential semi-final on the horizon. The result is generally all that matters in the knockout stages of a tournament and it could be that Brazil are all about the win than running up the score here.
The fact that this match goes straight to penalties after 90 minutes is probably going to lead Paraguay into parking the bus and if they can contain Brazil for an hour ago the nerves will jangle here. I think this might be tighter and tenser than many are suggesting so the 10/11 on under 2.75 goals is the way I’m playing this one.
Tips
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