The Emirates Stadium in London will be the battleground of the South American clash between Uruguay and Brazil on Friday evening. Both countries are among the favorites for winning next year’s Copa America.
Uruguay:
Uruguay reached the quarter finals of the World Cup last summer, in which later winner France proved to be too strong with 0-2. Since then, however, the South Americans are struggling with a slight form dip. In the 1-4 victory in the friendly match against Mexico, there was no foul, but in the friendly matches against both South Korea (2-1 loss) and against Japan (4-3 loss), La Celeste saw not good.
National coach Oscar Tabarez could argue against both Asian countries that he could not appeal to Luis Suarez. The Uruguayan star returns to the national team, but now the selector must puzzle in the back. Both Diego Godin and Jose Maria Gimenez had to cancel injured. A big loss, especially since the Uruguayan defense has had a hard time since the World Cup with as many as six countergames in the last three games. Because apart from Godin and Gimenez also Sebastian Coates and Gaston Silva are in the lapsmand, Maurico Lemos (Sassuolo, an international match) and Erick Cabaco (Levante, zero international) will probably form the central duo on Friday night. Those two very inexperienced defenders can thus wet their chest against Neymar and associates.
Brazil:
Brazil swallowed last summer at the World Cup in the quarter finals in Belgium (0-2 loss), but that does not take away the fact that the team of national coach Tite continues through thunder. With four victories in a row, De Divine Canaries recovered well from the debacle against The Red Devils in Russia.
Tite does his business well for each other. The defense in particular is very impressive, because in no less than eleven of the thirteen international matches of this calendar year, Brazil managed to keep the zero. Also last month, in the Superclasico against Argentina (0-1 victory) the yellow shirts did not shrink. It is remarkable, however, that the five-time world champion scores relatively difficult, because in the last ten international matches, it only managed to score more than twice against footbal El Salvador (5-0 win). Since the World Cup, Neymar gives more assists (six) than he scores (two). Especially from corner kicks the vedette causes danger, because in the last three international matches, Brazil always scored from a Neymar corner. Still nice to have such a secret weapon in the house.
PREDICTION: BTS / NO @ 1.79
