Argentina will find out their semi-final opponent in the Copa America on Friday night when the second quarter final takes place in Dallas as Venezuela take on one of the surprise packages of the tournament in Canada.
These two will battle it out over 90 minutes and then if there is a draw they will head straight to penalties as we saw on Thursday night. The reward for the winner will be a clash with Argentina in the last four.
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 1.50am ahead of the 2am kick off.
Venezuela
When they arrived at the tournament, Venezuela would have had an immediate aim of getting out of the group. They probably wouldn’t have worried about winning the group but once they ran into a stroke of luck in their opening game which saw them play against 10 men for the better part of 70 minutes, one which they took advantage of, they soon had their sights on topping the table, which they successfully managed to do.
There won’t have been many at the start of the tournament that would have thought that Venezuela would win all three matches in the group but they have shown a lot more going forward than was expected while not really being under too much pressure defensively. Ecuador, Mexico and Jamaica were a decent collection of opponents to test them too so the South American side look in decent order heading into the knockout stages.
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Canada
When you consider that Canada were in a group with Argentina, not to mention a couple of other South American sides who know their way around a Copa America, they knew they had to perform strongly to get out of the group. The size of the task was even more difficult when they lost to Argentina in their opening match, leaving them with no more room to slip up and they didn’t slip up. They got the win and the draw they needed to progress.
There has been a lot of positive signs for Canada in this tournament. I still think they are a huge work in progress defensively but that is probably going to be the case for a while under Jesse Marsch but their attacking structure is already improving. The only thing they need to get stronger at is putting the ball in the back of the net. They have probably lacked a clinical edge but they are getting players forward and that bodes well. You sense that if Canada are going to go further in the competition they will need to do it going forward rather than hanging on.
Betting
I’m not surprised that the goal line for this match is only at 2 but I am happy it is that low because I think we’re going to get some goals here. I don’t see these two teams sitting back and looking to contain and play not to lose rather than to win. I think both will look to grasp the opportunity that is in front of them because neither were certain to be in this quarter final when they started out in the competition and so there is an element of playing with a bit of freedom here.
There has been a lot to like about Venezuela going forward in this tournament and there is no reason why that will change here against a Canada defence which has coughed up 35 shots so far, 20 of which have been on target. How they have only conceded twice in the event I’ve no idea. Venezuela have only conceded once but they have leaked 34 shots of which 12 have been on target so while the results suggest these defences are going well, the eyes and the statistics tell a different story so if the strikers can be clinical I think there are goals here.
Tips
Back Over 2 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.82 with William Hill
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