Colombia - Peru

Colombia take on Peru in one of the quarter-finals of this year’s Copa America competition. The game will be played at Estadio Mario Kempes in Cordoba on Saturday night and it will see the team with the best defence in the competition (Colombia) take on Peru who squeezed in the quarterfinals despite coming third in their group. The hosts seem to be better prepared for the tournament and my pick goes with them.

Colombia finished at the top of their preliminary group despite being drawn with hosts of the competition and firm favourites Argentina. The Colombians did not even concede a goal in the three group matches drawing Argentina 0:0 and winning against Costa Rica and Bolivia with 1:0 and 2:0 respectively. The team will continue to rely on their biggest star Radamel Falcao who has scored two of the three goals so far. Colombia have only lost two of the last nine games they have played despite most of them being friendlies – 4-3-2.

Peru finished third in their group which also featured Chile, Mexico and Urugay. The team started well with a draw against the favourites Uruguay (1:1) and then won 1:0 against Mexico thanks to a late strike from the star Guerrero. The team lost the last game against Chile but still qualified for the quarterfinals and this should be a boost for all the players. Peru rely mainly on their strong defence as they conceded three goals in the last eight meetings on international level. However, they will need more than that against the strong team of Colombia and I think that this will be their last game of the tournament.

Colombia have got serious advantage as far as the games between the two teams are concerned winning three and drawing four in the last seven games.