The underdogs and the underperformers
Venezuela and Argentina are going to nuke it out at the Maracanã on Friday evening. Will Argentina continue to grossly underperform or will the Venezuelan underdogs ironclad defence finally rupture?
Venezuela
La Vinotinto did well to qualify second from a group containing Brazil, Peru and Bolivia. Whats more is that the Venezuelan's went through the group stage without losing a single game and only conceding a solitary goal.
Their draw against Brazil was honestly more due to luck than skill but a point is nevertheless a point no matter how you look at it so kudos to them. They did however show their quality against a capable Peruvian side managing a solid 0-0 result after a 75th minute sending off of left-back Luis Del Pinto as well as a solid win against rock bottom Bolivia with 3-1.
Main men Salomon Rondon and Tomas Rincon have performed admirably and will need to bring their A game + more if Venezuela are to have any chance of advancing to the semis for the first time since 2011.
Argentina
This Argentina side is a total and utter conundrum. They have an absolutely insane squad with the likes of Messi, Agüero, Di Maria, Dybala, Lo Celso and so forth featuring but cannot, for some extremely strange reason get their s**t together.
After the shambolic games against Colombia (0-2 loss) and Paraguay (pathetic 1-1 draw) La Albiceleste were forced to win against the lowly Qatar which they somewhat unconvincingly did with 2 goals to nil. Their saving grace was that Colombia managed to beat Paraguay with 1-0 despite already having won the group prior to that game.
However bad Argentina perform it is always hard to bet against them due to the fact that they have the worlds best player along with 3 or 4 other top 30 players that can turn a game on its head.
Another factor is that coach Lionel Scaloni finally took his head out of his ass and changed formation from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3 incorporating Messi alongside Aguero and Inter's Lautaro Martinez up front. The only problem is that despite me preferring the 4-3-3 setup it was tested against a mediocre Qatar side which is hardly an enlightening indicator of how successful it was.
Despite all the negativity a hugely positive aspect is that Dybala was subbed on and was magnificent during the last 15 minutes of Qatar. Hopefully Scaloni will give the Juve hitman more time against Venezuela as he is, in my opinion at least, an absolute baller.
Betting tip
Argentina are priced ridiculously low considering how bad they have been and despite the fact that i think they will scrap past Venezuela at the end i do believe that they will, per usual, have a hard time finding the back of the net which is why i will be backing Under 2.5 goals at 71/100 with Bethard.
