Copa America quarter-final pairings! Brazil has a tougher road to the final than Argentina

On the same date as the European EURO, the South American Copa America takes place. The very popular tournament has a complete line-up of quarter-final pairs. The biggest disappointment is probably the elimination of the USA or Mexico, who did not make it through the group stage. However, the biggest favourites, Brazil and Argentina, are still in contention.

Argentina will face Ecuador

The current world champions have gone through the group stage like a knife through butter. Argentina has not lost a point and has not conceded a single goal. Team captain Lionel Messi only played in the opening game, and thus for the first time in his career in the group stage of any major tournament, he did not score a goal.

Lautaro Martínez is also the top scorer for his team and the entire tournament, scoring 4 goals out of Argentina’s 5. Ecuador advanced from 2nd place, having advanced at the expense of the aforementioned Mexico thanks to a positive score.

The last group match against Mexico was the key match, which ended 0:0, and Ecuador secured their qualification to the knockout stage. The stars of the selection include Chelsea midfielder Moises Caicedo and Leverkusen stopper Piero Hincapie.

Venezuela take on Canada

The biggest surprise of the tournament is undoubtedly Venezuela. They did not lose a point in the regular group and advanced from 1st place. The team relies on its captain Salomon Rondon, who has already scored 2 goals in the tournament. The first-class striker has scored over 20 goals in the English Premier League, among others.

Eduard Bello has the same number of goals as Rondon. The 28-year-old Mazatlan striker has never played outside of South America and scored just 3 goals in the 2023/24 season. Canada has a team loaded with stars from Europe. Jonathan David, Alphonso Davies or Ismael Kone, these are the players who should drag Canada to historic success.

However, the Maple Leafs scored just 1 goal in the regular group and still advanced. David scored in the Peruvian net, Canada won 1: 0 and despite losing to Argentina could celebrate their progress thanks to a draw in the last game against Chile.

Colombia takes on Panama

Colombia won their group ahead of Brazil and Costa Rica. An opening win over Paraguay boosted promotion thoughts. Surprisingly, the team’s top scorer is defender Daniel Munoz, who plays for Crystal Palace in England.

In their next match, Colombia beat Costa Rica 3-0 to secure promotion. In the last group match, James Rodriguez and co. defended 1st place against Brazil with a 1-1 draw. James has already recorded 3 assists in the tournament and is the best player in this statistic.

If we consider Venezuela a surprise, we must also mention Panama. In the 2nd match Panama defeated the home team USA 2:1, which eliminated the home team in the group. The subsequent 3:1 win over Bolivia only solidified the historic qualification to the knockout phase. The biggest star is probably Marseille’s midfielder Michael Murillo.

Brazil and Uruguay offer the most anticipated duel of the quarter-finals

Brazil entered the tournament with a very unlucky 0-0 draw with Costa Rica. However, the Canaries then recovered and averted total disaster with a win over Paraguay. In the last match against Colombia, Raphinha scored the lead goal, but Colombia managed to respond.

In the quarterfinals, their team will miss one of the best players in the world, Vinicius Junior, due to yellow cards. Uruguay along with Argentina and Venezuela are still 100%. A very positive score of 9:1 makes Uruguay one of the big favourites to win the overall title.

However, Brazil will stand in the way of Darwin Nunez and Co. and they are one of the toughest possible opponents. It is Nunez who, along with Maximiliano Araujo, is the top scorer for his team. Playing against Marcelo Bielsa’s team is the fact that the last time the country celebrated advancing from the quarterfinals was in 2011, when it won the entire tournament.

Source: Copa America, X