Chile vs Paraguay

Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos forms the backdrop for a mouth-watering CONMEBOL friendly between Chile and Paraguay.

Chile dropped the curtain on March’s international break with a valiant 3-2 defeat to France. Despite failing to win four of their last five matches (D1, L3), La Roja commence their preparations for Copa America 2024 in a buoyant mood. Back to home turf, where they’re unbeaten across their last six outings (W4, D2), the two-time South American champions look forward to Paraguay’s visit after clocking up an impressive run of five successive home clean sheets. Though a scoreless draw against this opposition bookended that promising-looking stretch, Ricardo Gareca’s team should still be confident of entering the win column after winning back-to-back home H2Hs beforehand. But as two of Chile’s last three home internationals ended goalless, connoisseurs of action-packed football can hardly expect a thrilling contest.

The fact that Paraguay’s last seven internationals have seen one or both teams fail to get on the scoresheet in matches garnering under 1.5 total goals only supports this hypothesis. Terminally unable to find the net, the visitors drew a blank six times during that seven-game sequence, casting doubt on their hopes of penetrating Chile’s backline for only the second time in five H2Hs. Manager Daniel Garnero will be desperate for his side to rediscover their ‘killer instincts’ in front of goal to strengthen their chances of setting up a third consecutive Copa América quarter-final appearance. However, four away scoring blanks on the trot (D2, L2) could kill the mood around the traveling camp.