Bolivia - Argentina: Copa America Live Stream

Tournament position

Bolivia is a clear and hopeless outsider that does not even have a theoretical chance of reaching the playoffs. Despite a nice game for their level, shown in the last two matches, the “greens” have not scored a single point and will no longer be able to catch up with Uruguay, which is fourth with four points.

Argentina, having had a rest in the previous round, is in the lead in its quartet, and the victory over Bolivia guarantees its exit from the group from the first place. In this case, the fourth team of the North quartet, the national team of Ecuador, will become the opponent.

Key Points

Bolivia

1. You can relax and play to your heart's content without focusing too much on defense.

Cesar Farias, while working with the Bolivian national team, taught him that he does not really like to close even against strong opponents, preferring spectacular football with a bet on ball control. So, most likely, Bolivia will play against Argentina, despite the superiority of the opponent in the class. The times when Albiceleste had a South American record advantage over possession in the match against Bolivia are in the past not only because of Lionel Scaloni's style of football, but also because of the playing philosophy of the Venezuelan coach of the Bolivians.

2. Marcelo Moreno, Luis Aquin and Henry Vaca are ready to play from the starting XI

The former striker of Shakhtar Donetsk, who is the best scorer of the Bolivian national team in history and the best sniper of the entire current qualifying tournament for the World Cup in the South American zone, recovered from the coronavirus before the match against Uruguay. In the game against the Charruas, he entered the field only as a substitute and did not show himself in anything special, but Moreno is completely ready for the game with Argentina.

The same applies to attacking midfielder Henry Waky, who, after suffering an illness, quite cheerfully came on as a substitute in the last match. The main central defender Luis Aquin, who recovered from the coronavirus, also did not play against Uruguay, but in the upcoming match, Cesar Farias will surely give him a chance instead of Jairo Quinteros, who built the winning own goal for the Celeste together with goalkeeper Carlos Lampe.

Argentina

1. Will Lionel Scaloni once again opt for a two defensive midfielder with four attacking players?

Before the match with Paraguay, since the meeting against Colombia in the qualifying round for the World Cup, the Argentine coach preferred a 4-3-3 formation, which turns into a 4-4-2 defense. Then the center of the field was Leandro Paredes (or Guido Rodriguez) as a reference, Rodrigo de Paul (as the right "eight", situationally becoming a right midfielder and insuring Lionel Messi during possession transitions), and Giovanni Lo Celso (to the left and above the defensive midfielder). When defending, the left winger became the winger, who was most often played by Nicolas Gonzalez, who moved from Stuttgart to Fiorentina in a week.

Before the match with Paraguay, left without Lo Celso due to injury, the Argentine coach decided to strike a balance in midfield in a different way. Paredes and Rodriguez entered the support zone at the same time, and an extra player appeared in front, which was Alejandro "Papu" Gomez, who had not previously played in the squad. The scheme itself was a 4-2-3-1 with Messi under the striker. It was the former partner of Alexei Miranchuk in Atalanta who became the author of the only goal of Albiceleste, for sure securing a place in the base for the next matches.

2. Scaloni is super pragmatic. Will he give the ball to Bolivia after scoring an early goal?

The Argentines did not defeat any of their rivals in possession of the ball. Despite the fact that among the rivals of the Albiceleste there were such historically defensive and pragmatic teams as Uruguay and Paraguay. The average possession of the national team from the southeast of South America in the tournament is 46%. Former defender Lionel Scaloni has groped for a style of coaching that is far more in line with the philosophy of the late Alejandro Sabella than with the views of his former boss, Jorge Sampaoli. Even in the Paraguay game, he fielded two players with destroyer missions. Scaloni also clearly doses the inclusion of full-backs in the attack.

But he relies on an early goal. In all five June matches, Argentina opened the scoring in the first half. If in the qualifying meetings with Chile (still with the old scheme) and Colombia, Scaloni's ideas were too raw, then for the America's Cup they took on a solid shape.

3. Will Scaloni continue to rotate against Bolivia?

Not once during the tournament did Albiceleste's mentor repeat the squad from the previous match. The most frequently rotated cornerbacks are Nahuel Molina and Gonzalo Montiel on the right and Marcos Acuña and Nicolás Tagliafico on the left. But for sure, a rotation can follow in the attacking group, despite the immunity of Lionel Messi and the successful match with Paraguay of the pair Papu Gomez - Angel Di Maria, who built a goal against the Guarani. Little time in this tournament was played by namesakes from Atlético and Lazio Angel and Joaquin Correa and the most talented representative of the Argentine championship, 21-year-old River Plate winger Julián Alvarez. Some of them will definitely appear on the field in the meeting against Bolivia, perhaps in the starting lineup.

In the Argentine press they also talk about goalkeeper rotations. Perhaps Franco Armani will come out instead of Emiliano Martinez, who received a yellow card in one of the matches. For the same reason, Ezequiel Palacios can come out in the center of the field instead of Paredes.

Lineups and tactics