Colombia Vs Peru
Colombia Vs Peru Friday 28 January, 2022 – 21:00 (GMT)
CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifier
Pick: Colombia to WIN
Odds: 8/11
Bookmaker: Coral
(All betting odds correct at time of writing: 26 January 2022)
Preview: Locked on 17 points apiece, fourth meets fifth at Estadio Metropolitano Roberto Melendez, in Barranquila, Colombia. The hosts have won their four previous World Cup qualifying matches when taking on Peru on home soil and are favourites to do so again.
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Table of Contents
Colombia – Solid rearguard edging Los Cafeteros towards Qatar?
Following their strong start initially, taking four of the first six points by thrashing Venezuela and drawing away to Chile, Los Cafeteros went completely off the rails as they sustained back-to-back heavy defeats at home to Uruguay (0-3) and away to Ecuador (6-1), who were 4-1 to the good at half-time. It seems some soul searching was undertaken thereafter, as they have since lost once in ten WCQ outings (W2 D7).
Among the areas in urgent need of improvement was clearly the defence, which has undergone quite the transformation. Since shipping those six goals in Quito, the Colombian backline has been breached five times in ten qualifying matches and banked a clean sheet in four of the last five. Unfortunately this has adversely impacted them up the other end, with it now five straight qualifiers without scoring (D1 L4).
Key Stat: Paraguay and Venezuela, in ninth and tenth respectively, have earned fewer wins (two each) in CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifying so far than the three of Colombia, who have racked up the highest tally of draws (eight in fourteen games).
Peru – La Blanquirroja must buck negative away trend?
If their upcoming opponents are the South American drawing specialists, then Peru must be pushing for the dubious honour of being the continent’s biggest losers? While that might seem a harsh assertion to make about the team currently fifth and on course to qualify either automatically or through the backdoor via the play-off, this is a side that has incurred more defeats (seven) than all barring rock-bottom Venezuela (11).
Four losses were away from Lima, losing 57% of the time they have travelled in this qualifying campaign (W2 D1 L4). All four defeats were to nil, while two were versus the current top two in Argentina and Brazil, suggesting a breakthrough against fourth-placed Colombia isn’t guaranteed. La Blanquirroja are in good form, however, winning their last two qualifiers 3-0 and 2-1 against Bolivia and Venezuela respectively.
Key Stat: Having sneaked a win over Venezuela in their most recent away World Cup qualifier, Peru are now bidding to win successive World Cup qualifying away matches for the first time this century!
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Colombia Vs Peru Betting Advice
Last summer’s Copa America meetings – Peru producing something of an upset to win 2-1 in the group stage, before Colombia exacted their revenge in the third-place play-off by winning 3-2 at the death – continued a positive theme. Four of five previous encounters have seen a minimum of three goals. However, those matches were also an exception to the rule, among only three of the last eight H2Hs seeing BTTS.
Colombia Vs Peru – Key Facts:
- This is a repeat of last summer’s Copa America third-place play-off, which Colombia prevailed 3-2 in. As the visiting team, though, Peru haven’t so much as managed to score against Colombia since August 2001.
- Colombia have drawn four of their last five WCQ games, as well as seven of the last ten, but won each of their last four at home versus Peru – each of them ‘to nil’.
- And ‘to nil’ is precisely how Peru lost all four away World Cup qualifiers during this campaign. However, they would avoid defeat on all three occasions in which they did find the net (W2 D1).
The likelihood we see a third successive high-scoring duel seems unlikely, though. Colombia have seriously tightened up since some heavy losses earlier in the campaign, conceding once in the past five qualifiers. Meanwhile, Peru fail to score more often than not on the road (four of seven away qualifiers resulted in them losing to nil). Colombia have won the last four WCQ H2Hs as hosts as well, all of them to nil.
Best Betting Odds – Colombia Vs Peru
Colombia – 8/11 (Coral)
Draw – 5/2 (Betfair)
Peru – 5/1 (Bet365)
