Seeley’s Selections – Bolivia v Peru

Nobody would have predicted the Copa America quarter-final which takes place in the early hours of Friday morning when two South American minnows Peru and Bolivia battle it in Temuco for a place in the semi-finals.

Everybody expected these two nations to be tournament whipping boys and they have surpassed expectations and a last four meeting with hosts Chile await the winner.

Peru haven’t been in the best of form in 2015, but like they do in most Copa America tournaments, they save their best for this competition and have started to see support with BoyleSports. They are now into just 4/5 to win this in the 90 minutes and make it through to the semi-finals for the second successive time.

The Incas were unlucky to lose 2-1 in their opener against Brazil and many of you have already been tempted by the prices on offer. I’m not totally convinced at all.
After the Brazil match, the next two group performances from Ricardo Gareca’s side far from impressed me.

They won 1-0 against Venezuela, which was a very fortunate victory and then they made it through to the quarter-finals with an uninspiring 0-0 draw with Colombia and they will have to improve greatly on those performances to get me parting with my cash at the odds on quotes.

Bolivia are the weakest team left in the tournament and odds of 4/1 to win this with BoyleSports reflect that. Mauricio Soria has done a tremendous job since taking over the national team just before this tournament started, with most believing they were going to be the group whipping boys rather than tournament quarter finalists.

Many will look at their 5-0 defeat to Chile in the last group game and write them off totally, but they had already qualified and were resting key players ahead of this one in that game so that shouldn’t be taken in consideration when betting.

The big concern though, and it’s a massive one is their defence; they were on the ropes for the entire second half against Ecuador to just hang on to a 3-2 win and in the 0-0 opening draw with Mexico, this was the only time they’ve kept a clean sheet in the last 34 internationals.

Going forward they can score goals as they showed with three in the first half against Ecuador and I like both teams to score in this one at the 5/4 on offer with BoyleSports.

With doubts about both sides’ ability to win the game and nerves certain to play a major part in the biggest game of these player’s careers, the draw is the most sensible match outcome at the tasty 9/4 with BoyleSports.

The last four meetings between these two nations have ended in stalemates and now in the most crucial one of the lot, it really looks the only wager to have again. I’m going to take this one to end in a rather entertaining 1-1 draw which looks the wise choice at BoyleSports’ 11/2.

If you are looking for a goalscorer then the class act on display is Bayern Munich’s Claudio Pizarro and with one goal already to his name in this tournament, the 9/2 with BoyleSports on him scoring the first goal is decent.

B Lucky!

Seeley’s Selections:
Draw @ 9/4
Both Teams To Score – Yes @ 5/4
Correct Score: 1-1 Draw @ 11/2
Claudio Pizarro First Goalscorer @ 9/2

*Prices correct at time of publication