Confident Ecuador tipped to heap more misery on last-place Venezuela
Venezuela vs Ecuador - 10/10/2021
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It’s third against last in the South American World Cup qualifying group on Sunday, as high-flying Ecuador travel to struggling Venezuela.
Ecuador are enjoying an impressive qualifying campaign. They sit level with fourth-place Uruguay on 16 points and three points behind second-place Argentina.
On the flip side, Venezuela find themselves rock bottom of the standings – two points behind Bolivia and 12 points shy of Ecuador.
Venezuela were beaten 3-1 by Brazil on Thursday, despite taking an early lead against the group leaders.
They managed to hold out until 71 minutes but eventually collapsed and ended up conceding three late goals.
That defeat means that Venezuela have now lost each of their previous five matches across all competitions.
Worse still, they head into Sunday’s clash on a ten-game winless streak, having claimed three draws and seven defeats in that time.
Ecuador, meanwhile, clinched a 3-0 victory over Bolivia last time out, with Enner Valencia bagging a first-half brace.
In fact, all three goals came in the first 19 minutes of the game, which ended with the visitors on 68% possession and 17 shots.
It is worth noting, however, that Thursday’s victory was only Ecuador’s second win in 11 games across all competitions.
The Ecuadorians endured a poor Copa America campaign in the summer, recording three draws and two losses in the process.
Head-to-head: Venezuela’s last victory over Ecuador came back in the 2011 Copa America. Since then, Ecuador have claimed three wins and four draws in this fixture.
The two sides produced a 2-2 draw during this summer’s Copa America, meaning they have now drawn each of their past three meetings across all competitions.
Team news: Venezuela have named five uncapped players in their squad for October’s World Cup qualifiers, including MLS pair Daniel Carrillo and Pablo Bonilla.
La Vinotinto are, as always, captained by Tomas Rincon, who has 108 international caps under his belt.
As for Ecuador, they have three uncapped players in their ranks. Moises Ramirez, Jeremy Sarmiento and Jose Angula will all be hoping to make their debut on Sunday.
Given that Venezuela are struggling at the bottom of the group, Ecuador should claim all three points this weekend.
For that reason, Forebet predicts that Ecuador will seal a narrow win on Sunday, although both teams are likely to score.
Home team
Away team
Pred
Correct score
Avg. goals
Weather conditions
Coef.
Score
Live
coef.
WCQ
283537
2
1 - 2
2.74
19°
2.12
4.00
3.24
2.12
1
-1
1
2 - 1(1 - 1)
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