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A tough Copa América knockout match could be on the cards
If they don’t win, Mexico will be eliminated from the Copa in disgrace, so a tough match is on the cards.
Although this year’s Copa América is not about the cards, the stakes are rising as the final group stage gets underway. And the Group B knockout stage could well be the one where tempers flare. Check out the best odds from Copa América sponsor Betano!
Venezuela have surprisingly beaten two of their strongest rivals to advance. For Bello, the important thing is to get a point against Jamaica, which would replace Argentina as Canada in the last eight. The other match in the group promises to be a thriller as the qualification round is at stake.
A draw would see Ecuador qualify, but in principle, group qualification could be on the line, as if Venezuela lose, the winner here would win Group B.
The last time the two teams met was in 2022, when they had a 6-card draw in a friendly, as they did in their last Copa clash back in 2015 – although that is less relevant to the match this morning.
The referee will be Guatemala’s Mario Escobar, who handed out 3 cards in the Peru-Canada game, and although he’s not a really over-sportsman by his numbers, he’s also a lot of over-sports in the Central American region. We wouldn’t mind a match like the one he put together in the summer of 2022, when he dealt 12(!) cards to the visitors in the Honduras-Canada Nations League match.
The stakes are there, and both teams can play hard if need be. We expect a close, tight match with the loser going out of the Copa, which would be particularly embarrassing for Mexico. So despite the Copa under, here we are looking at extreme over variations, not to mention red cards.
