Alongside Mexico and Jamaica, Group B of the Copa America also features the teams of Ecuador and Venezuela. Both can be considered tough teams that will surely be hard to crack. Moreover, both will fancy their chances to reach the knockout stage of the tournament as it is a very real possibility for either.
Ecuador Team News
It could be said that Ecuador enjoyed a fruitful preparation for the Copa America. Two wins in their preparatory friendly games against Bolivia and Honduras, five goals scored in total and 2 conceded. Looking at it it is not a bad tally for the team. Take into consideration the fact, that Félix Sánchez’s team is in a rather good run of form – 6 wins in their last 10 fixtures. La Tri is certainly set up nicely for the start of the competition, but one cloud will remain looming over them, despite the good results – the fact that Ecuador has not won a Copa America opener since 1993.
Venezuela Team News
Venezuela have managed to make it out of their group in their last six appearances at Copa America tournaments. Now, however, they will have to drastically improve to continue this trend. The Wine-Reds have not won any of their last 5 fixtures with their last victory coming against Chile in 2023. The results in the aforementioned 5 fixtures are 3 draws and 2 losses for Venezuela, which curiously includes 1 game against Ecuador as well, which ended in a 0-0 draw. Looking at those fixtures another things become clear as well – Venezuela’s games don’t tend to feature lots of goals as 4 of their last 5 matches have featured less than 2.5 goals.
Head-to-Head-Games
Neither team can be said to have an advantage over the other in the direct games between them. Ecuador and Venezuela both have a win to their name from their last 5 head-to-head fixtures with the remaining 3 ending in stalemates. Three of those matches saw less than 2.5 goals while 2 were on the opposite spectrum.
Ecuador – Venezuela Betting Prediction
Since this is an opening fixture for both parties, I do not expect them to rush blindly into attack. If anything can be determined from the head-to-head matches between Ecuador and Venezuela it is that games between them are not goal-rich affairs. More often than not such games end in draws with sparse goals being scored. And the occasion here will most likely dictate caution and more risk avoidance than anything. Hence why, my pick here is for under 2.5 goals in this game.
Betting Tip: Under 2.5 Goals
Bookmaker: Stake
Odds: 1.52
Stake
Place your bet on Ecuador – Venezuela at Stake