We already know that Argentina are in the final of the Copa America and on Wednesday night we will find out who they will face when South American rivals Uruguay and Colombia do battle in the second semi-final in Charlotte.
Both these teams have made it through to this stage without losing a game in the tournament and looking full of confidence and both will fancy their chances of reaching the final and having a crack at the world champions.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Premier Sports 1 channel in the UK with the coverage getting up and running at 12.50am ahead of the 1am kick off in Charlotte.
Uruguay
Uruguay had come through their group stage with three wins to make it into the knockout part of the competition but their reward for doing so was a quarter final meeting with Brazil, which certainly wouldn’t have looked ideal on paper, but despite being reduced to 10 men in the second half of the contest, Marcelo Bielsa’s men hung on and got the game to penalties, where they prevailed quite comfortably to set up this semi-final shot.
Uruguay continue to be this attacking force but one which isn’t particularly clinical in their taking of the chances and you do suspect that will come to haunt them at some stage in this tournament. It might well be here because they lost a defender to a red card last time out and another to injury so it might be that they start to run light on defensive resources at just the wrong time. Uruguay will continue to go after teams though which will make them a good watch.
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Colombia
I think it is fair to say that Colombia have been the best team in the tournament so far. The only time that they have failed to win in this Copa America was in their final group match with Brazil when they had already secured qualification and were as much about conserving energy as going out and beating the Samba Boys. They completely dominated the quarter final with Panama and probably left enough in the tank to really go at this game.
In James Rodriguez, Colombia have had comfortably the best player in the tournament and the attacking players around him have really thrived as a result. There was a feeling going into the event that Colombia might fall short defensively but there have been no signs of that in the competition so far. They are going to be tested defensively here but we know that Colombia will get the job done going the other way so there is every reason for ‘Los Cafeteros’ to be confident going into this match.
Betting
Interestingly, when these two met in World Cup qualifying towards the end of last year the match ended 2-2 which suggests we might get a more exciting semi-final than the odds and lines would suggest. I have to say I am amazed based on what we’ve seen so far that Colombia are the outsiders to progress to the final. If I wasn’t effectively already on them to do that having backed them outright before a ball was kicked I would be all over that.
Instead I will go to the player markets for a bet on this game and that comes in the 3.15 for James Rodriguez to score or assist in the match. He did both in that 2-2 I referenced in the World Cup qualifying and in this tournament he has assisted five times including in the three games which have been competitive for Colombia and he scored a penalty in the quarter final win against Panama. He is the main man in this Colombia setup and anything over 2/1 just has to be taken here.
Tips
Back J.Rodriguez to score or assist for a 2/10 stake at 3.15 with Unibet
