Chile are set to host regional neighbours Bolivia in midweek in the latest round of the CONMEBOL World Cup qualification campaign.
With the inaugural fixtures of the Copa America 2021 also just days away now, this week's game could be a good indication of which nation will pick up the three points when these two come to blows in the group stage in mid-June.
Match preview
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Chile, who have often looked set to become an international football powerhouse in recent years, have blown hot and cold so far in their qualification campaign.
With just five points from their opening five games, Martin Lasarte's side are currently seventh in the table, just one point ahead of their opposition this week.
Against Argentina last week, Chile did impress and Lasarte's men pushed the South American giants hard, with the tie eventually ending in a 1-1 stalemate.
It was former Arsenal megastar Alexis Sanchez who came up with the goods for the national team in that contest, with the 32-year-old cancelling out Lionel Messi's opener in the 36th minute.
If Chile can take that mentality into this fixture, there is no reason why Lasarte's men cannot give Bolivia a run for their money this week.
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With just one point from their first four qualification games, Bolivia managed to stop the rot against Venezuela with the team delivering an emphatic 3-1 win over La Vinotinto.
National legend and team captain Marcelo Moreno was the man of the hour once again for La Verde, with the 33-year-old former Wigan loanee scoring a brace. The skipper now has 24 goals for the national team.
Bolivar defender Diego Bejarano also found the back of the net for La Verde, with Jhon Chancellor scoring for Venezuela.
The much-needed win hauled Bolivia out of the depths of the table and now Cesar Farias's men are in eighth place with four points under their belt.
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Team News
Lasarte fielded all the heavy-hitters for their Argentina game and the likes of Alexis, Eduardo Vargas, Gary Medel and Claudio Bravo are likely to retain their places for this fixture.
Cesar Pinares, Tomas Alarcon and Carlos Palacios were all called upon by Lasarte during the 90 minutes and could feature again in this game.
Unlikely to tinker too much with a winning side, Farias is not expected to make any major changes to the starting 11 that beat Venezuela.
Gilbert Alvarez could step in for Henry Vaca in attack, with the latter being brought off just after halftime last time out.
Chile possible starting lineup:
Bravo; Isla, Medel, Maripan, Mena; Pinares, Pulgar, Aranguiz, Meneses; Vargas, Alexis
Bolivia possible starting lineup:
Lampe; Bejarano, Haquin, Quinteros, Flores; Justiniano, Alvarez, Saavedra, Arce, Ramallo; Moreno
We say: Chile 2-2 Bolivia
This will be interesting contest between two sides that are slowly finding their feet in the campaign and are desperate to get points on the board. We think it will be a stalemate with Moreno and Alexis both bagging goals for their sides.
Top tip
Francis Buchanan
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Chile win with a probability of 64.18%. A draw had a probability of 23% and a win for Bolivia had a probability of 12.84%.
The most likely scoreline for a Chile win was 1-0 with a probability of 16.66%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (14.32%) and 2-1 (8.8%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.24%), while for a Bolivia win it was 0-1 (5.96%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with a 10.2% likelihood.
Argentina
Uruguay
Ecuador
Colombia
Brazil
Paraguay
Bolivia
Venezuela
Chile
Peru
