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Coached by former Peru boss Ricardo Gareca, Chile began with a goalless draw against the Peruvians to leave themselves in jeopardy, whilst world champions Argentina began by cruising past Canada by two goals to nil in Atlanta.
KICK-OFF DATE/TIME: Wednesday 26th June, 2024 - UK – 2:00am & Tuesday 25th June, 2024 - US ET – 9:00pm / US PT – 6:00pm
HOW TO WATCH ON TV: UK – Premier Sports / US – Fox Sports & TUDN
HOW TO WATCH ONLINE: UK – Premier Sports / US – UniMas, Univision, DirecTV Stream, Sling Blue & ViX
CHILE PREVIEW: A PERFORMANCE IS NEEDED
It is an extremely experienced Chilean squad with plenty of players from the Marcelo Bielsa/Jorge Sampaoli era such as Claudio Bravo, Mauricio Isla, Alexis Sanchez and Eduardo Vargas but Ricardo Gareca has to put more of an imprint onto this team.
Something of a similarly progressive and attacking coach, he is yet to get Chile playing any sort of cohesive attacking play, albeit he was only appointed at the turn of the year. Their goalless draw with Peru made it two wins, a draw and a defeat in his four matches so far.
ARGENTINA PREVIEW: EASING THEMSELVES THROUGH
Jesse Marsch complained about Argentina taking too long to come out for the second-half in their opening match against his Canada side and that will have made matters worse when Julian Alvarez notched just four minutes into the second-half to score the first goal of the tournament.
Internazionale captain Lautaro Martinez sealed all three points in the 88th minute of the match and the Argentinians began the defence of their title with a comfortable victory, albeit generally unconvincing in areas – particularly in the opening 45 minutes.
CHILE TEAM NEWS: CAUTION CONCERNS
Diego Valdes was forced off through injury against Peru so he will be an injury doubt for the Chileans. Other selection headaches for Ricardo Gareca would include all three of Victor Davila, Alexis Sanchez and Erick Pulgar being now just a booking away from suspension.
PREDICTED XI (4-2-3-1): Claudio Bravo; Isla, Igor Lichnovsky, Paulo Diaz, Gabriel Suazo; Rodrigo Echeverria, Erick Pulgar; Victor Davila, Alexis Sanchez, Brereton; Eduardo Vargas
UNAVAILABLE:
QUESTIONABLE: Diego Valdes (Injured)
ARGENTINA TEAM NEWS: NO LIKELY CHANGES
Argentina went into their game against Chile with a flat 4-4-2 system and Angel Di Maria out wide on one flank with Alexis Mac Allister a nominal left midfielder. That is expected to be the case with the likes of Enzo Fernandez and Alejandro Garnacho getting no minutes against Canada.
PREDICTED XI (4-4-2): Emiliano Martinez; Nahuel Molina, Romero, Lisandro Martinez, Marcos Acuna; Di Maria, De Paul, Lo Celso, Mac Allister; Messi, Alvarez
UNAVAILABLE:
QUESTIONABLE:
CHILE VS ARGENTINA PREDICTION
We may well have a bit of a thriller here. Argentina have been solid in their tournament wins in the last three years and their centre-back pairing of Cristian Romero and Lisandro Martinez is exceptional but there were moments of susceptibility shown up against the Canadians. Chile, albeit not yet getting to grips with the philosophy of Ricardo Gareca, had scored three against Albania and two against France in March as they prepared for the summer. Argentina are favourites but both teams scoring may well be a good bet for it, too.
CHILE VS ARGENTINA TIP: ARGENTINA TO WIN & BOTH TEAMS TO SCORE