Just over three weeks on from Argentina’s opening day 2-0 win over Canada, the final game of the Copa America 2024 is set to take place on Monday when the reigning Copa America and World Champions take on Colombia at the Hard Rock Stadium in Florida.
Both teams have shown excellent ability and fought incredibly hard to make it to the final and now have one last battle on their hands as they fight to become 2024 Copa America winners.
Argentina vs Colombia
Monday 15 July, 01:00
Hard Rock Stadium
Argentina came into this tournament as the strong favourites to go all the way and lift the trophy owing to their phenomenally talented squad and huge success in international competitions in recent years, currently the reigning Copa America and World Cup champions.
The White and Sky Blue have lost just twice in their last 62 matches across all competitions and come into this final having won all of their last 10 matches.
Lionel Scaloni’s men kicked off their tournament with a comfortable 2-0 win against Canada before beating both Chile and Peru to top their group with nine points and no goals conceded, earning them a game against Ecuador in the quarter-finals.
Ecuador were the better team for a majority of that match but Argentina took the lead thanks to the competition’s current top scorer, Lautaro Martinez, in the 35th minute. Kevin Rodriguez dramatically scored a 90th-minute equaliser to send the game to penalties, and despite Lionel Messi unbelievably missing the first penalty, Argentina progressed through 4-2 winners from the shootout.
The semi-finals were next for Scaloni’s team, pitting them up against familiar foes in Canada, and once again they ran out 2-0 winners thanks to goals from Julian Alvarez and Messi, seeing them get all the way to the final with just one goal conceded.
Their opponents Colombia will certainly be a tough opponent though, having arguably been the best team in the tournament so far.
Wins against Paraguay and Costa Rica were followed by a 1-1 draw against Brazil, a game in which the Brazilians were lucky to get a point after they were dominated throughout the game by Nestor Lorenzo’s team.
Those results put them through at the top of Group D, earning them a favourable quarter-final matchup against Panama. James Rodriguez, who has been exceptional all tournament, turned on the style in this game with a goal and two assists to help earn his side a comfortable 5-0 win.
Their semi-final was a fierce matchup with Uruguay and after taking the lead in the 39th minute, Colombia were put down to 10 men as Daniel Munoz was sent off for an accumulation of yellow cards just before the half-time whistle blew.
Colombia battled excellently in the second 45 minutes and were able to hold on to their lead, putting them through to the final where they will face up against Argentina in an attempt to win their first major trophy since 2001.
They will likely be reliant on superstar creator Rodriguez, who broke Messi’s record for the most assists in a single Copa America campaign in the semi-final as he produced a pinpoint cross to Jefferson Lerma to claim his sixth assist of the tournament, as well as scoring once along the way.
Bet9ja Tips
While Argentina have looked strong throughout the tournament, conceding only one goal, they have allowed for teams to attack their goal plenty of times and can count themselves rather fortunate that they made it through the Ecuador match after being under immense pressure throughout.
Colombia will be the first major threat they come up against in their run to the final and with the outstanding Rodriguez dictating play and fashioning out chances for himself and his teammates, including Luiz Diaz and Jhon Cordoba, they could cause plenty of harm to the reigning champions.
We believe that Colombia’s impressive run that has matched them up against difficult opponents such as Brazil and Uruguay along the way will continue on Monday, as we predict Colombia to win the match and lift the coveted Copa America trophy. You can get odds of this to happen of 4.30 with Bet9ja.
Bet9ja Odds (at time of writing): Argentina to win: 2.14, Draw (after 90 minutes): 2.93, Colombia win: 4.30
Booking Codes:
6SKR2F6, 6SKR58Q – Book here
1 Comment
by Dammydee244
Easy does it slow and steady