Bolivia will be keen to shake off a disastrous Copa America campaign on Thursday afternoon when they resume their World Cup qualifying campaign as they welcome Colombia to the Estadio Hernando Siles in La Paz.
The new format in the Copa America tournament was a lenient one as four of the five teams in each group would progress through to the knockout rounds but Bolivia failed to even achieve that as they lost all four of their matches in Group A, losing to Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina, the latter being a heavy 4-1 defeat.
Bolivia will be hoping for a change of fortunes in these World Cup qualifiers but the bigger picture shows that the hosts have managed to win just one of their last 12 matches overall in all competitions, losing nine of these.
Their one success came in the shape of a 3-1 home win over Venezuela in a World Cup qualifier who sit below them in the South American section table, but having won just one of their last eight games at this level, Bolivia look to have their work cut out here.
Colombia claimed a 3rd place finish in the recent Copa America tournament in Brazil thanks to a 3-2 win over surprise-package, Peru, but it’s now back to the serious business of reaching the World Cup finals as Colombia look to move into the top four of the qualifying table.
The visitors sit level on points with Uruguay but they’ll fancy their chances against a Bolivia outfit who really struggled in the Copa America.
Who also sit third from bottom in the South American section with just one win under their belts.
For their part, Colombia, have produced mixed results to date so far in their qualifying campaign, winning, drawing and losing in equal measure but they did record a 3-0 win away in Peru back in June.
They’ll be hoping they can build upon that encouraging result along with the 2-2 draw with Argentina last time out, when they face Bolivia on Thursday afternoon.
The bigger picture shows that Colombia have lost just three of their last 12 World Cup qualifiers, only one of which was away from home where Colombia have lost just once in their las six matches on their travels, so the visitors look in good shape for a result here.