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Colombia will stretch long unbeaten run in close encounter
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Another tough match for Brazil beckons
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Colombia v Costa Rica (Friday, 23:00)
The Group D leaders Colombia will be looking for their second win at the 2024 Copa America, when they meet Costa Rica.
A victory would see them safely through to the quarter-finals, before they face Brazil in their final game of the group, having beaten Paraguay 2-1 in their opening fixture.
Goals from Daniel Munoz and Jefferson Lerma saw Colombia effectively wrap up victory by half-time, with James Rodriguez providing both of the assists. It was Colombia's ninth successive victory and stretched their unbeaten run to 24 games (W19 D5).
Now they face a Costa Rica side that pulled off a surprise result in their opener, having held Brazil to a 0-0 draw.
Despite only having 26% of the possession, the Costa Rican defence held firm and it says a lot regarding how they were able to contain Brazil, that their goalkeeper Patrick Sequeira only had to make three saves.
Costa Rica are unbeaten in four games following that result (W2 D2), keeping clean sheets in all of those fixtures, which includes another goalless draw with Uruguay.
It is clear that Costa Rica are going to be difficult to break down, but considering Colombia's current run, we have to assume that they will find a way. A Colombia win and under 2.5 goals is priced at 9/52.80.
Back Colombia to beat Costa Rica and under 2.5 goals
Paraguay v Brazil (Saturday, 02:00)
With Brazil having to face in-form Colombia in their final game in Group D, it is imperative that they beat Paraguay.
Despite dominating against Costa Rica, the Selecao drew a blank, with an xPG of 1.66. The 0-0 draw means that while new manager Dorival Junior is unbeaten during his five-match reign, he has only tasted victory twice (D3).
Vinicius Junior started as a central striker, but was replaced by Endrick in the second-half, with the Real Madrid forward having only ever scored three goals in 31 appearances for his country.
The game could have been different has Marquinhos not had a goal ruled out by VAR for offside and the stats suggest that if Brazil can score against Paraguay, they will go on to win.
Following their defeat in their opening game, Paraguay have lost each of their last 18 matches in which they have conceded the opening goal.
Over the last 12-months Paraguay have won just two of their ten games (D3 L5). Yet within that timeframe, they have only conceded two goals or more twice and have kept five clean sheets.
This points towards another difficult match for Brazil. Though they lack balance in attack, they are not without quality, so we have to expect them to scrape a win here. Once more, we'll combine a victory for the favourites with under 2.5 goals, with odds of 2/13.00 being available on this occasion.
Back Brazil to beat Paraguay and under 2.5 goals