Brazil vs Paraguay 28/06/19

28 June 2019

The leading favorites to win the tournament and the second-best third-placed side in the competition go head-to-head at the Arena do Grêmio in Porto Alegre as Brazil take on Paraguay in the Copa America quarter-finals.

Having finished top of Group A with a record of two wins and a draw, the host nation is one of two teams that have yet to concede a goal at this tournament. What’s more, Tite’s men have now kept 11 clean sheets in 13 games in the post-World Cup period, restricting their rivals to a maximum of one goal per match in the remaining two. Furthermore, even though the Seleção struggled to find the net against Venezuela, they have scored more goals than any other nation at Copa America (8), netting over 2.5 goals against both Bolivia and Peru. The Brazilians now look to get revenge on the 2015 Copa America elimination that saw Paraguay dumping them out of the competition in the quarter-finals, which was the last time these two sides met at the most prestigious international competition in South America.

Meanwhile, Los Guaraníes made it to the knockout stage despite they’ve failed to pick up a victory in the group phase (D2, L1). Interestingly, all three of Paraguay’s games in Group B have seen precisely one goal in the first half, with two of those matches witnessing goals at both ends. Eduardo Berizzo’s main worry ahead of this clash could be his team’s inability to preserve a blank slate, which saw them concede at least one goal in 12 of their last 13 outings. Also, La Albirroja’s poor run of form saw them secure barely one triumph in their previous 11 games (W1, D4, L6), with eight of those matches featuring under 2.5 goals.