Uruguay vs Colombia Prediction: Brilliant Bielsa to make the final
Argentina await in the Copa America final for either Uruguay or Colombia, as the two South American giants collide in North Carolina. Marcelo Bielsa has transformed Uruguay into a real force since he took the job, and they’ve been a joy to watch during this tournament. They dumped Brazil out on penalties and they will fancy their chances of winning only their second Copa America.
Below you can find my Uruguay vs Colombia prediction, featuring team news and betting odds.
Team News
Uruguay will be without Nahitan Nandez after his red card in the quarter-final against Brazil, while Ronald Araujo is also going to miss this one after he suffered a leg injury and had to be replaced after half an hour. The Barca man will miss the next eight weeks of football, so expect Jose Maria Gimenez to replace him, with former Manchester United man Guillermo Varela filling in at right-back.
Meanwhile, Colombia will welcome back Jefferson Lerma after his suspension, and he should come in for Mateus Uribe. Eduardo Lara Lozano should name an unchanged team aside from that.
Uruguay predicted starting XI:
Rochet; Varela, Gimenez, Olivera, Vina; Valverde, Ugarte; Pellistri, De la Cruz, Araujo; Nunez
Colombia predicted starting XI:
Vargas; Munoz, Sanchez, Cuesta, Mojica; Rios, Lerma; J. Arias, Rodriguez, Diaz; Cordoba
Uruguay are priced at 17/10 to win this game, with Colombia available priced at 39/20. A draw is available at 17/10, BTTS is 28/25 and over 2.5 goals is 33/20.
Uruguay to win @ 17/10
I’ll be honest, the two defensive absentees concern me slightly heading into this one, but I still fancy Uruguay to come out on top. Gimenez and Varela are two able replacements and Bielsa won’t change his tactics at all, which is a good thing in my eyes.
Uruguay have been fantastic so far, progressing from that quarter-final on penalties despite going down to 10 men. They scored nine goals in their three group games, winning three from three before edging past Brazil. Meanwhile, Colombia also drew with Brazil this summer - in the group stage, before hammering Panama 5-0 in the quarter-final.
This should be a tight encounter, but I’m also going to back Bielsa in these games.
Darwin Nunez to score @ 21/10
The main man for Uruguay is always a threat, and given they have looked good going forward this tournament, I’m more than happy to back the Liverpool forward to find the net. He’s going to start as the central striker once again, with the sole aim of causing chaos.
He’s already scored twice this tournament, and he could have had more, but he is going to be their most dangerous forward once again. Colombia have been decent at the back, but I think there is a slight gap in quality that Nunez can exploit. He’s so difficult to stop, and so my second choice is to back him to find the net at some point in the 90 minutes.
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