In the early hours of Friday morning, Venezuela welcome Argentina to San Cristobal as CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying resumes.
Each South American nation has already played six qualifying matches for next year’s tournament in Qatar.
Enfocados en el partido del jueves. 👀 pic.twitter.com/nIEYoYl7KM— La Vinotinto (@SeleVinotinto) September 1, 2021
Enfocados en el partido del jueves. 👀 pic.twitter.com/nIEYoYl7KM
As things stand, Argentina currently find themselves second in the table – four points behind first-place Brazil.
At the other end of the group, Venezuela sit second from bottom – level with last-place Peru on four points.
Venezuela have only managed to win one of their six qualifiers so far, recording one draw and four losses in the process.
They were also the only team that failed to make it out of Group B in this summer’s Copa America, as they drew two and lost two of their four group games.
When you look at the bigger picture, Venezuela have only managed to win four of their previous 28 outings in all competitions.
That said, they have only lost one of their last seven World Cup qualifiers on home soil, giving them hope for the visit of Argentina.
Argentina, meanwhile, head into this clash on a 14-match unbeaten streak, having lifted the Copa America trophy back in July.
They have also lost just eight of their previous 68 games in all competitions and have not been losing at half-time in each of their last 14.
Argentina beat Brazil 1-0 in the 2021 Copa America final after seeing off Ecuador in the quarter-finals and Colombia in the semi-finals.
In terms of World Cup qualifying, they have won three and drawn three of their six games – scoring nine goals while conceding five.
Head-to-head: Despite meeting 26 times over the years, Venezuela have only been able to beat Argentina on two occasions – 2011 and 2019.
Argentina have beaten Venezuela 22 times since their first meeting in 1956, with four of their previous six meetings producing over 2.5 goals.
Team news: Freddy Vargas, Oscar Gonzalez and Daniel Carrillo could all make their international debut for Venezuela against Argentina.
Aston Villa’s Emiliano Buendia has been called up to the Argentina squad for the very first time, while PSG new boy Lionel Messi is in line to make his 152nd cap.
Considering the historical head-to-head record between these two sides, Venezuela stand very little chance of preventing defeat this time around.
For that reason, Forebet predicts that Argentina will claim a clean-sheet victory over Venezuela in San Cristobal.