Prediction: Colombia vs Chile

Prediction: Colombia win

Best Odds: 6/5

Bookmaker: bet365

The Copa America has reached the business end of the tournament now, as just eight teams remain in the quest to become the South America champions. A series of nations will consider themselves to be in with a pretty good chance of getting all the way through to the final, but of course, the quarter-finals are probably going to upset the status quo in more ways than one. The game we’re going to be looking at today is Colombia vs Chile, which has the potential to be an absolute barnburner.

Colombia

Colombia seem to hold the distinction of being a popular second team for many international football fans, but unfortunately for them, that wasn’t enough to lift them past England in last year’s 2018 FIFA World Cup. Ever since then they’ve been taking the necessary steps towards proving what they’re really capable of, which has led to a really strong group stage in this year’s Copa America tournament. Now, all they need to do is follow the same protocol they’ve implemented in all of their games thus far.

Team News

Zapata has moved ahead of Falcao in the pecking order, and is fully expected to be the man who starts this quarter-final tie.

Chile

Not appearing at the World Cup last summer hurt a lot for Chile fans, but you could argue that not performing to their full potential in this tournament would hurt even more. As the two-time defending champions of the Copa America title they’ll be expecting at least an appearance in the semi-finals, and if they are able to win the whole thing, they would become the first country in the modern era to win three straight titles in this tournament.

Team News

Isla, Vidal and Beausejour will all return after being rested in the final group game due to the risk of being suspended.

Factors to Consider

• Chile leads the overall head to head standings 15-10 with 13 draws.
• Colombia have won all three of their Copa America games so far.
• Chile have won two and lost one of their Copa America games so far.
• Colombia’s best Copa America result was as champions back in 2001.
• Chile are the two-time reigning Copa America champions, winning in 2015 and 2016.

Conclusion

This is going to be the game of the tournament so far, in our opinion, and with that kind of hype should come some justification. In truth, though, if you’ve watched either of these nations for longer than 10 minutes, you’ll understand our excitement. Chile are going to try and slow Colombia down and smother them in the middle of the park, but we think that the defensive structure of the Colombians in addition to their attacking prowess will lead them to victory.

Either way we’re expecting an incredibly competitive game between two of South America’s finest, which is kind of what we need to see in order to take this year’s tournament to the next level. Then, the real fun begins.

Prediction: Colombia win

Best Odds: 6/5

Bookmaker: bet365