Brazil vs Bolivia

Estadio Olimpico do Para forms the backdrop for a lopsided 2026 World Cup qualifying encounter between Brazil and Bolivia.

Despite suffering a dismal quarter-final exit at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Brazil head into the new World Cup qualifying campaign as odds-on favorites to finish atop their group, just as they did in the last four cycles. Seeking a record-extending sixth World Cup title, the ‘Selecao’ open a new qualifying campaign on home soil, where they’ve thumped Bolivia by an identical 5-0 scoreline in their last two World Cup qualifiers. Moreover, going back to 1993, the Brazilians have won four of their six home meetings with Bolivia in World Cup qualifying by 5+ goals ‘to nil,’ with the exceptions of a 3-1 win and 0-0 draw in 2004 and 2008, respectively. However, caretaker manager Fernando Diniz cannot take anything for granted after overseeing two defeats across three internationals in 2023 (W1).

In the meantime, Bolivia’s faint hopes of returning to the World Cup finals for the first time since 1994 commences against a Brazil side they’ve lost to in their last three encounters by an aggregate score of 12-0! Moreover, since a 2-1 home win in 2009, they have failed to find the net in six consecutive meetings with Brazil (D1, L5), losing five of them via at least a three-goal margin. If that’s not enough to derail their spirits, the Bolivians have suffered an abysmal nine defeats in their 11 internationals since January 2022 (W1, D1), conceding multiple goals in six of them. It only gets worse as Bolivia picked up just two points from nine away matches during the last World Cup qualifying campaign (D2, L7), netting a meager six goals in the process.