The derby of the Copa America quarterfinals brings a matchup between Brazil and Chile at Estadio Nilton Santos in Rio de Janeiro. We couldn’t ask for a better game at this stage between the winners of the previous three editions of this tournament. Brazil is the favorite here, there’s no question about it, but knowing Chile, nothing is too sure when they play. This is the team with an extremely strong will, and we’ve already seen how they respond to these types of situations throughout the past.
Preview
Brazil (-210) is the No.1 favorite to win this competition, especially now when they play at home. Selecao had 10 wins before this event and a total goal difference during the Copa America group stage, 10-2. Overall, Neymar and the boys won three games and played a draw in the final match 1-1 against Ecuador, but they already secured the top spot in Group B.
With two goals and two assists, Neymar leads the way for the hosts, who received a massive amount of help from the referees since the beginning of the championship.
We just want to mention that Brazil allowed three goals in the previous 10 contests and that pretty much all of them have been competitive, mostly against the South American rivals in the World Cup qualifiers.
Chile (+750) didn’t play that badly during the group stage. If it weren’t for that defeat in the last round against Paraguay, 0-2, we could have said that their campaign was, in fact, pretty solid.
Draws against Argentina and Uruguay, 1-1, and a win over Bolivia, 1-0, were the remaining results, which is good when watching in general. What also needs to be added is that Chile played well against the Argentinians and the Uruguayans, with Eduardo Vargas leading the way up front.
Atletico Mineiro’s striker and the two-time top goalscorer at this competition already has two goals and an assist, cutting the gap between him and Norberto Mendez, the current record holder for the most goals in this tournament, to three hits.
Latest News
Danilo picked up an injury against Ecuador, but he should be in the protocol for the quarterfinals.
The mystery surrounding Alexis Sanches‘s condition is still on. Inter’s attacker was supposed to miss the group stage and then join the team due to his calf injury, but there isn’t any news about him for now. Gary Medel will be fit after substitution against Paraguay.
Head to Head Matches
Interestingly, Brazil and Chile haven’t met for almost four years. Back then, Selecao won in the World Cup qualifiers at home, 3-0. Yet in the previous match of the same WCQ, Chile took down the Brazilians at Santiago, 2-0. Four of the previous five games saw a moderate efficiency. 2 or 3 goals.
Prediction
About that moderate efficiency, six of the previous seven games Brazil played saw 2 or 3 goals. On the other side, Chile was out of that range only once in the past nine events, which is why we predict the same for Friday’s game. Odds on Brazil’s win are too low, and we won’t take that pick, but instead moderate efficiency, 2 or 3 goals, where odds sit at -105.
Here are the previews of the remaining Copa America 2021 games.
Also here are the previews for the EURO 2020 quarterfinals as well
Nikola Velickovic is a sports journalist who loves to write and read on all sports. Nikola contributes both news updates and functions as a sports breaking news writer at WagerBop.
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