In-form Ecuador will make the trip to Santiago to face Chile in World Cup qualifying on Tuesday knowing they are within touching distance of reaching the finals.
A superb run of form has moved Sebastian Beccacece's men into second in qualifying, while Chile are back at the foot of the standings, but not yet down and out.
Match preview
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Chile entered this month's qualifiers hopeful that they had turned a corner, and would now ride on the momentum picked up at the end of 2024, which had moved them off the bottom of the table.
However, Ricardo Gareca's men were beaten 1-0 in Paraguay, being punished for a wasteful first-half performance, before a really poor display after the interval.
Peru's home win over Bolivia has seen them overtake Chile once more, and losing at home to La Verde in September could end up being very costly for La Roja.
Chile are still only four points off the playoff place, but with four teams battling it out for that honour, dropped points both home and away must be avoided from this point on, with just five games remaining.
Gareca will have been glad to see Venezuela fall to another defeat last week, as they remain within touching distance of the side they beat 4-2 in November, but that will be irrelevant if they cannot pick up maximum points here at home.
Chile lost the reverse fixture 1-0 back in November 2023, and they were also beaten at home by Ecuador in qualifying for the last World Cup, so there is little down for the hosts, especially when the visiting side's form is taken into consideration.
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Despite being deducted three points at the start of qualifying, Ecuador are already on the brink of reaching the finals with five games to spare, now being the closest challengers to runaway leaders Argentina.
After reaching the previous World Cup, Ecuador are now on course to reach back-to-back finals for just the second time in their history, with their current tally of 22 almost enough to secure a spot in North America.
Beccacece's side are unbeaten in six matches now, taking 14 points in that spell, and they only conceded their first goal in that run in injury time against Venezuela last week.
It is therefore no surprise that Ecuador have the best defensive record in qualifying, having conceded just five goals in 13 matches, but that will be put to the test in what is a tricky end to the campaign for La Tricolor.
Every away game will be tough, even against the current bottom two, who Ecuador still have to play, including Chile next, while their remaining home fixtures pit them against Brazil and Argentina.
Team News
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Chile will hope to have national legend Alexis Sanchez available for this one after he did not even make the bench in the defeat to Paraguay last week.
Sanchez is not the only Chilean suffering with injury issues at present, because Fabian Hormazabal was a late pull-out, Marcelo Morales remains sidelined, and Norwich City's Marcelino Nunez was left out after failing to prove his fitness in recent weeks.
Erick Pulgar and Williams Alarcon are also absent in midfield, but Gareca was able to call upon the experience of Arturo Vidal once again, winning his 145th cap last week.
Ecuador are without wing-back pairing Angelo Preciado and Jhoanner Chavez for this week's camp, but Brighton & Hove Albion's Pervis Estupinan is back in form at club level, and will start here.
Another of their England-based players has missed out though, as former Brighton man Jeremy Sarmiento has been dropped due to a lack of game time at Burnley, while Alan Minda and Leonardo Campana are unavailable.
Enner Valencia has moved to within four caps of reaching the 100 mark, while Chelsea's Moises Caicedo is already over halfway to that milestone despite still only being 23, and both should add to their tallies here.
Chile possible starting lineup:
Cortes; Loyola, Maripan, Diaz, Suazo; Vidal, Echeverria, Pizarro; Sanchez, Vargas, Cepeda
Ecuador possible starting lineup:
Galindez; Ordonez, Torres, Pacho, Estupinan; Plata, Vite, Caicedo, Franco, Mercado; Valencia
We say: Chile 0-0 Ecuador
Chile must win their final three home games if they are to remain in contention for the playoff spot, but this will be a devilishly difficult assignment against an Ecuador side that very few teams have managed to beat of late.
A superior goal difference and a margin of nine points over Bolivia means Ecuador will certainly be breathing a lot easier now, but they will still want to finish strongly, and they should extend their impressive unbeaten run.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Andrew Delaney
Argentina
Ecuador
Brazil
Uruguay
Paraguay
Colombia
Bolivia
Venezuela
Peru
Chile
