Before the Copa America gets underway, Colombia and Argentina meet for a World Cup qualifier at Estadio Metropolitano on Tuesday.
Argentina are enjoying an unbeaten qualifying campaign so far and currently sit second in the group on 11 points – four points behind Brazil.
🎥 ¡Preparados! 👌@daosanchez26 y @wilmarBarrios8 palpitan el partido 🆚 🇦🇷#VamosColombia 🇨🇴 pic.twitter.com/mMX0SHVL9U— Selección Colombia (@FCFSeleccionCol) June 7, 2021
🎥 ¡Preparados! 👌@daosanchez26 y @wilmarBarrios8 palpitan el partido 🆚 🇦🇷#VamosColombia 🇨🇴 pic.twitter.com/mMX0SHVL9U
Meanwhile, Colombia find themselves sixth – four points behind Argentina – having won just two of their five matches.
Colombia kicked off their qualifying campaign with a 3-0 victory over Venezuela before drawing 2-2 with Chile.
Back-to-back losses to Uruguay (3-0) and Ecuador (6-1) followed, but Colombia managed to return to winning way last time out.
Colombia secured a 3-0 win over Peru last weekend, thanks to goals from Yerry Mina, Mateus Uribe and Luis Diaz.
Having conceded 11 goals in five games, Colombia have the third-worst defensive record in the South American WCQ group. However, they have kept two clean sheets in that time.
They have also netted over 1.5 goals in three of their five qualifying matches, giving them the third-best scoring record in the division.
On the flip side, Argentina have only scored seven goals across their opening five qualifying games, meaning only three teams have score fewer goals.
That said, they have only conceded three goals in that time, giving them the second-best defensive record.
Across the opening two WCQ rounds, Argentina beat Ecuador (1-0) and Bolivia (2-1) before drawing with Paraguay (1-1) on Matchday 3.
Lionel Scaloni’s men then beat Peru 2-0 before picking up a 1-1 draw with Chile in their previous outing last weekend.
Despite seeing 55% possession and racking up 16 shots, Lionel Messi’s penalty wasn’t enough to prevent a draw with Chile.
Head-to-head: Colombia and Argentina have faced each other 39 times over the year, with Argentina picking up 23 wins along the way.
That said, Colombia head into Tuesday’s clash on a two-match unbeaten streak against Argentina, having knocked out them of the 2019 Copa America.
Team news: Jefferson Farfan, Edison Flores and Cristofer are all currently injured for Colombia. David Ospina, Juan Cuadrado, Duvan Zapata and Luis Muriel are likely to start.
Argentina will be without injured duo Nicolas Gonzalez and Lucas Alario on Tuesday. Lautaro Martinez is expected to partner Lionel Messi in attack once again.
Given that four of the last six meetings between Colombia and Argentina have produced under 1.5 goals, we are likely to see a low-scoring encounter this time around.
With that in mind, Forebet predicts that Colombia will frustrate Argentina – holding Messi and co. to a goalless draw.