Peru vs Paraguay

Estadio Olimpico Pedro Ludovico hosts an intriguing Copa America 2021 quarter-final showdown as Peru and Paraguay battle it out for a place in the semis.

The Peruvians have hit the ground running in Group B following a disastrous 4-0 loss to Brazil on Matchday 1, putting together three group stage matches without defeat (W2, D1) to progress to the Copa America knock-outs for the tenth tournament edition in a row. Interestingly, none of Peru’s previous three internationals have witnessed a strike beyond the 65th minute, even though each of their last four goals came beyond half-time. Despite suffering seven defeats in their previous 13 international outings (W3, D3), ‘Los Incas’ are confident of overcoming Paraguay here, especially considering each reverse in that 13-game sequence came at the hands of FIFA’s top-20 nations. Furthermore, before being held to a 2-2 draw in their most recent H2H encounter, Peru had been on a resounding six-match winning streak against this opposition, keeping them at bay four times in the process.

On the other hand, Paraguay alternated between a win (2) and a loss (2) across their four Copa America group stage matches, with three of those results (win/loss) seeing the winner on the day keep a clean sheet. There’s still a glimmer of hope for Paraguay that they can secure a berth in the Copa America semi-finals for the first time since 2011, as they’ve conceded under 1.5 goals in each of their last seven games in the competition. If it turns out football does follow the script, we may have to wait beyond the 120th minute to find out the victor, considering each of Paraguay’s last three Copa America quarter-finals went to penalties (W2, L1). But ‘Los Guaraníes’ will have to worry about falling apart after conceding first, with each of their last six losses seeing them fail to trouble the scoreboard.