World Cup Qualifying - South America | Group Stage

Oct 16, 2024 at 1am UK

Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti

Argentina vs Bolivia

Match preview

Argentina didn't get the result they were hoping for in Venezuela on Thursday night, but it was still enough to put them a point ahead of both Colombia and Uruguay. Their two closest rivals both suffered surprise losses on matchday nine.

Lionel Scaloni's team have already done a lot of the hard work, with 19 points on the board at the halfway stage. However, they were below their best in Maturin against a tricky Venezuela side.

Argentina were ahead at the break thanks to a goal from Nicolas Otamendi, but Venezuela had the better of the opening period, had more shots on target and eventually found the equaliser through Salomon Rondon.

It's not the worst result to come away with a 1-1 draw on the road in South American qualifying. In fact, it's a pretty decent outcome. Argentina are now three points ahead of Colombia at the top despite losing to Los Cafeteros last month.

Scaloni's team has only conceded eight goals in their last 20 qualifiers, which is pretty impressive. However, they haven't been capitalising on their defensive solidity recently, winning just two of their last five.

They're expected to do better than that, though, when they play Bolivia, who don't travel well at all.

Like many, Argentina have had their troubles away to Bolivia, such as the 6-1 defeat in 2009. However, in 11 home meetings in qualifying, the hosts have won 10 and drawn only once.

However, after winning their first away qualifier in 31 years last month, Bolivia will feel they can achieve anything, especially after the upturn in results and performances they have enjoyed under Oscar Villegas.

La Verde caused a bit of a shock with their win away to Chile last month, and they've followed that up with home wins over Venezuela and Colombia.

The 4-0 win against Venezuela was impressive, but the win against Colombia was astonishing, especially considering they played for 70 minutes with 10 men and were up against the second-placed side in the qualifying group.

Switching home venues from La Paz to El Alto, which is over 500 feet higher in the extreme altitude of Bolivia, is clearly having a huge effect. Despite their man advantage, Colombia couldn't get to grips with the game before Miguelito scored the only goal of the game.

This means that Villegas has led Bolivia to three wins from three in his time in qualifying. This is a big improvement on their performance at the start of the qualifying period, when they only managed to get three points from their first six games. La Verde are now in one of the automatic qualifying positions.

Recent Performance

Argentina World Cup Qualifying - South America form:WLWWLD

Argentina form (all competitions):WWWWLD

Bolivia World Cup Qualifying - South America form:LWLWWW

Bolivia form (all competitions):LLLWWW

Injuries and suspensions

Argentina

No sidelined players

Bolivia

No sidelined players

Possible starting lineups

Argentina possible starting lineup:

Rulli; Molina, Otamendi, Romero, Tagliafico; De Paul, Fernandez, Lo Celso; La Martinez, Alvarez, Messi

Bolivia possible starting lineup:

Viscarra; Medina, Haquin, Suarez, Sagredo; Robson Matheus, Villamil, R Vaca; Miguelito, Algaranaz, Chura