Early Bird Tips for South America World Cup Qualifiers: Bielsa vs Diniz Not To Be Missed

South American expert Nathan Joyes puts forward his early bird tips for the upcoming South American World Cup qualifiers.

All eyes are on Bielsa vs Diniz as Uruguay vs Brazil takes focus, while the World Cup holders travel to Peru who are still looking to score their first goal.

• Early Bird Tips for Venezuela vs Chile: Venezuela Double Chance and Under 4.5 Goals
• Early Bird Tips for Uruguay vs Brazil: BTTS – Yes
• Early Bird Tips for Peru vs Argentina: Argentina to Win and Under 3.5 Goals

Acca odds: 7.00

Odds via bet365 as at 10:00, October 13th, 2023. Odds may now differ.

Venezuela vs Chile: Hosts to stop opponent’s hot run of form

Venezuela, World Cup qualifiers, Tuesday October 17th, 22:00 (UK)

Eduard Bello’s beautifully executed bicycle kick saw Venezuela leave Brazil with a valuable point. As the only South American side to not make it to a World Cup, this is an opportunity to keep that dream alive.

Brazil weren’t at their best, but take nothing away from Venezuela’s performance. They defended well and created opportunities for themselves. They’ve only conceded four in their last seven matches – improvement is coming.

A 1-0 victory over Paraguay before their trip to Brazil offers hope. They defended resolutely compared to their previous campaign and managed to frustrate their opponents. However, they did start strong, and this victory was by no means a fluke.

Chile comes into this fixture on a high after beating Peru 2-0 at home. Peru, however, have been diabolical so far. They haven’t scored in three matches and evidently came for a point, which played into Chile’s hands.

Venezuela won’t take that approach. They’ll look to start strong, but they’ll equally know when to take their foot off the pedal and defend. It won’t be a classic, and we could see a draw play out, which both teams would arguably take before kick-off.

• Selection: Venezuela Double Chance and Under 4.5 Goals
• Best Odds: 1.95
• Bookmaker: bet365

Uruguay vs Brazil: Defences to come undone in Montevideo

Uruguay, World Cup Qualifiers, Wednesday October 18th, 01:00 (UK)

Marcelo Bielsa vs Fernando Diniz promises to serve up the match of the round. Arguably, it’s Bielsa’s Uruguay which has impressed the most so far.

Their 3-1 victory over Chile didn’t see them shift out of second gear before a narrow defeat away to Ecuador, and a point in Barranquilla against Colombia was mightily impressive.

Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez has voiced his opinion on Bielsa, praising him for helping improve his game. He fired home the last-minute penalty against Colombia, and he’ll be looking to add to his tally against Brazil.

Scoring hasn’t been an issue, but conceding has. As we have seen with many of Bielsa’s teams over the years, his style of play often leaves them open defensively. Brazil will be looking to make sure they still haven’t kept a clean sheet after round four.

Diniz will also be looking for a reaction. His methods are taking some time to translate across to his European players, and a 1-1 draw with Venezuela was far from acceptable.

As Brazil have dropped points, the importance of this game has gone up a notch. With so much attacking talent on display, I’ll be very surprised if chances don’t fall the way of both teams.

• Selection: BTTS – Yes
• Best Odds: 1.95
• Bookmaker: bet365

Peru vs Argentina: Another comfortable scoreline for holders

Peru, South America , Wednesday October 18th, 03:00 (UK)

Whilst Brazil have shown a few cracks early on, life has been rather comfortable for Argentina so far. Under Scaloni, they’ve never really been a team which blows opponents away – so 1-0 victories over Ecuador and Paraguay aren’t overly concerning.

In their last 30 matches, they’ve only won by a four-goal margin or more on three occasions. Those matches have been against UAE, Curacao and Estonia. They know how to get the job done, and that’s all that counts during the qualifiers.

Whether Messi starts or not, they’ve shown against Bolivia and (to some extent) Paraguay that they don’t heavily rely on him – although his presence on the pitch is always a bonus.

It’s important to note Emiliano Martinez hasn’t conceded for 622 minutes. The last time he picked the ball out of his net was against France in the World Cup final.

He’ll be looking to make that over 700 minutes against Peru, and there are plenty of reasons as to why that will happen.

The obvious one is that Peru haven’t scored in their three matches to date. Their only home match to date was against Brazil, but they didn’t have a single shot on target.

They didn’t against Chile, either, and they mustered up one against Paraguay. One shot on target across three matches is worrying, and their new boss clearly needs more time to turn things around.

However, that’s unlikely to come against Argentina at home.

• Selection: Argentina and Under 3.5 Goals
• Best Odds: 1.95
• Bookmakers: bet365

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