Tournament hosts Brazil opened up their Copa America campaign with victory on Friday night and their next two opponents in the competition do battle in the first of two matches in the tournament on Saturday evening when Peru face Venezuela in Porto Alegre.
Given that both sides have Bolivia to play and that the third placed team in the group could well go through as a result, there is not the fear of a loss being damaging like there is in other events so hopefully both teams set up to entertain.
Venezuela
It will be interesting to get a first look in the tournament of Venezuela. They have made big strides in the world game in recent times, assisted by a quality set of youngsters coming through and good performances at youth level. Some of those stars are in this squad and will be looking to light up the stage and launching themselves into the spotlight of the many scouts undoubtedly watching the event.
In recent warm up matches we have seen Venezuela go in with one up front and that is how I’m expecting them to line up here, which would mean they have plenty of firepower to call upon from the bench should they need it. There will be a lot of scrutiny on Salomon Rondon to score them goals but if he can manage that do not be surprised if the Venezuelans become tough to beat.
Peru
There is a lot on the line for Peru in this tournament. There was plenty of excitement around them heading into the World Cup last year but they couldn’t have any worse luck in that event if they had tried and left it without really making the impression they would have wanted to. They have another chance to do that here and with one or two of their squad probably only having this competition and next year’s running left in them, the stakes are fairly high for them.
We saw that Peru had a decent defensive solidity to them in Russia last year but they didn’t get enough numbers into the box to find the net as often as they would like, so it is important for their flare players to come to the party in this tournament if they are going to progress as far as they will want to. There are goals in them but they need to be prepared to take risks to come out on top.
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Team News
It would appear that Venezuela are going to stick with Salomon Rondon as their lone striker with the likes of Tomas Rincon playing off him. Josef Martinez may need to wait until later in the game to find his way onto the pitch.
Peru do still have Paolo Guerrero in their midst in this tournament and he will lead their line. They are without midfielder Aquino however as he is currently injured. Yoshimar Yotun could be a key player for the Peruvians.
Betting
Both these sides have things to like about them and in a way there is a chance that their formations can cancel each other out so I wouldn’t be surprised if we get a tight match here. Although I would hope both teams don’t think this way a draw here and a win over Bolivia will see both safely into the knockout stages so it might be that risk taking is few and far between here which would have the draw largely in play.
Nevertheless, Venezuela are beginning to look a big price to me. I think they will be quite happy playing on the counter attack and we’ve seen in recent times that Peru can lack ideas in the forward areas. It isn’t always the wisest move to take notice of warm up matches but Peru looked very poor against Colombia last week. Venezuela might just be building enough momentum and their energetic side can come out on top of any result there may be here.
Tips
HALF WON – Back Venezuela (+0.25AH) to beat Peru for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with NetBet
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