Bolivia welcome Venezuela to Estadio Hernando Siles on Thursday, with both nations eager for points in the race for 2022 World Cup qualification.
In the South American side of the draw, Bolivia find themselves rock bottom of the group, having recorded one draw and three losses so far.
¡La Vinotinto ya está en Bolivia! 🛬🇧🇴La delegación nacional ya se encuentra en la ciudad de Santa Cruz. El próximo jueves se enfrentará a Bolivia en La Paz. #VamosVinotinto | #FVF | #Vinotinto pic.twitter.com/qz87rlsspN— FVF (@FVF_Oficial) June 2, 2021
¡La Vinotinto ya está en Bolivia! 🛬🇧🇴La delegación nacional ya se encuentra en la ciudad de Santa Cruz. El próximo jueves se enfrentará a Bolivia en La Paz. #VamosVinotinto | #FVF | #Vinotinto pic.twitter.com/qz87rlsspN
On the other hand, Venezuela are third from bottom – two points ahead of Bolivia – after registering one win and three losses.
Bolivia head into Thursday’s match on a poor run, having lost each of their previous four home games in all competitions.
Looking at the bigger picture, Bolivia have only managed to win four of their last 25 outings in all competitions.
Bolivia played two friendlies back in March, losing them both 2-1. After going down to Chile, they suffered another defeat to Ecuador.
Those two friendly results mean that Bolivia have now conceded at least two goals in each of their previous eight games in all competitions.
In their other WCQ matches, Bolivia lost to Brazil (5-0), Argentina (2-1) and Ecuador (3-2) before drawing with Paraguay (2-2).
On the flip side, Venezuela haven’t played a game since November 2020, when they secured a shock 2-1 win over Chile.affair
Before that, Venezuela suffered three straight defeats at the start of their WCQ campaign – losing to Colombia (3-0), Paraguay (1-0) and Brazil (1-0).
Still, it is worth pointing out that Venezuela have only managed to win three of their last 20 World Cup qualifiers.
With Colombia and Chile sitting just one point ahead of them in the group, Venezuela will view Thursday’s match against the bottom nation as an excellent chance to move up the standings.
Head-to-head: Bolivia and Venezuela have faced each other three times since 2015. Venezuela have won twice in that time, while Bolivia have picked up one win.
Interestingly, each of the last three meetings between Bolivia and Venezuela have produced over 3.5 goals, so Thursday’s clash is likely to be a high-scoring affair.
Team news: Bolivia will be spearheaded by Marcelo Moreno – the country’s all-time leading scorer – on Thursday, while SPAL forward Jaume Cuellar could make his international debut.
Salomon Rondon hasn’t been included in Venezuela’s 30-man WCQ squad, although Torino star Tomas Rincon is expected to make an impact.
Given that Bolivia and Venezuela have produced a series of high-scoring games in recent years, we are likely to see plenty of goals in La Paz.
For that reason, Forebet predicts that Bolivia and Venezuela will play out an entertaining draw, with both teams scoring over 1.5 goals.