The defending World Cup champion Argentina has a great start of the qualifiers for the next Mundial but after failing to win in the last two games, the pressure is building up. La Selección is back home for the game against Bolivia, and there will be no excuse if they do not win this one.
Argentina and Bolivia meet on 16.10.2024, in the tenth round of the South American World Cup qualifiers. The game takes place at Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires on Tuesday evening.
Argentina | Wednesday, 16.10.2024, 02:00 | Bolivia |
1 | x | 2 |
1,05 | 15,00 | 54,00 |
Argentina – Bolivia: Initial situation
Argentina is still holding on to the first place in the South American qualifiers while Bolivia has jumped to the last place that leads to the 2026 Mundial. Given the recent results, Bolivia is in better form, but the quality is undeniably on the side of the home team in this match.
Argentina Stats & Form
Argentina is on top of the South American World Cup qualifiers with 19 points in 9 games. They have 6 wins, a draw and a loss. In the previous window in September, Argentina defeated Chile and lost to Colombia. In the first match of this window. they travelled to Venezuela and played only 1-1. Nicolas Otamendi put Argentina up front after only 13 minutes of play and it seemed like it will be another walk in the park for the defending world champions. They had the majority of the possession but were pretty passive on the offense having only 4 shots on target. The home team kept pushing and managed to score near the one-hour mark, which ended up being the final score. Now, Argentina has failed to win the last two games, after winning the previous 12.
Bolivia Stats & Form
Bolivia has jumped to sixth place in the South American World Cup qualifying group with 12 points, as many as Ecuador and only one more than Venezuela. Interestingly, Bolivia has yet to play a tie in this circle, as they have 4 wins and 5 losses with a negative goal differential. Bolivia’s hopes increased after winning both games in September, 4-0 at home against Venezuela and 2-1 on the road in Chile. For the weekend, Bolivia did a great job defeating Colombia by 1-0. Bolivia had only 36% of the possession and Hector Cuellar was sent off in the 20th minute, but still managed to win with Santos’ Miguelito scoring the lone goal. Bolivia has four wins in the last ten games, and three of those came in the last three contests.
Argentina – Bolivia: Head to Head
Argentina and Bolivia have played 18 times since the year of 2000. Argentina has won 12 of those, four games ended in a tie and Bolivia won twice. In the first game of these qualifications, Argentina won 3-0 on the road, which was their fourth consecutive win in the head-to-head series. The last time Bolivia won was in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers when the score was 2-0. The last four games between the two went over 2.5 goals in total.
Argentina – Bolivia: Odds
Argentina is a major favorite going into this one with the odds of 1,05. You won’t see much bigger odds than Bolivia’s 54,00 for their win in this game while the draw is set at 15,00. The total goal line is set at 3.5 with 1,78 for over and 2,11 for under.
Top 3 Betting Odds
Argentina – Bolivia Betting Tip | Odds |
Argentina -2,5 | 1,65 |
First half over 1,5 goals | 1,88 |
Early goal in the match: Yes | 1,82 |
Betting tip and prediction: Argentina – Bolivia (16.10.2024)
Argentina has nothing to worry about when it comes to their participation in the upcoming World Cup, but failing to win in the last two games is something that makes things uncomfortable. The defending champions have won only one point in that stint, and all of a sudden, the top spot in the group is in jeopardy. Leo Messi has been with the team but has not scored since his injury at Copa America. He played the entire 90 minutes in the last game against Venezuela, which is a good sign, but he will most likely not do the same in this one. Anyway, Argentina would probably not need Messi to beat Bolivia. However, the Bolivians deserve all the respect as they have won the last three games in the qualifiers and have put themselves in a situation to fight for their first World Cup appearance since 1994. It is a fact that Bolivia is not the same team when playing at home or on the road, not just because of the fans but because of the altitude, which most teams find impossible to play in. They will not help them in this game as they visit Argentina; they have never defeated on the road in 98 years since their first game. Argentina is under pressure to win this game, and they will give no chance to the visitors. Messi and his teammates will keep their foot on the gas for the entire game and will win by covering the -2.5 goal spread.