Paraguay vs Chile prediction: SOUTH AMERICA: World Championship – Qualification betting tips on match 2025-03-20 23:00.
[p]Paraguay‘s move to sack Daniel Garnero after a poor showing at the last Copa AmĂ©rica has proven to be positive for their 2026 World Cup Qualifying (WCQ) fortunes. The team were unbeaten in the second half of 2024 under new boss Gustavo Alfaro (W3, D3), collecting more than twice as many points as they did in their first six WCQ fixtures. [/p]
[p]A repeat of such performances would see them in their first World Cup finals since 2010. All three of their victories in late 2024 came on home soil, including tremendous triumphs over continental giants Argentina (2-1) and Brazil (1-0) that should give them enormous confidence against struggling Chile. At Alfaro’s disposal is a near full-strength squad with the headline absence being captain Gustavo Gómez, while striker Antonio Sanabria, who recorded four of their eight goals in these WCQs, has been out recently with a knee injury.[/p]
[p]Things haven’t improved for Chile since their winless Copa América campaign last year. A series of four straight defeats amongst their six subsequent WCQ matches (W1, D1) has left them on the verge of missing a third consecutive World Cup and means the pressure is intensifying on manager Ricardo Gareca to deliver some results. Despite their woes, Gareca told reporters after a 6-1 friendly win over Panama in February that he still believes his side has “potential” to earn “important points” with a refreshed squad.[/p]
[p]Having fallen well behind Paraguay in this WCQ cycle when compared with the last, it stands to reason that Chile aren’t in an ideal position to replicate their 1-0 win in Asunción back in November 2021. That’s especially the case when considering that Chile failed to win each of their last 13 matches on opposition territory (D4, L9), which includes five losses from their six away games of this WCQ cycle (D1) by a concerning aggregate score of 14-1.[/p]
[p]Players to watch: Omar Alderete scored in Paraguay’s win over Argentina and may also need to be watched closely by the referee, having been booked in eight of his last 20 games for club or country. Lucas Cepeda struck in both of Chile’s last two matches and the 22-year-old registered a double in his last club appearance for Colo Colo.[/p]
[p]Hot stat: Only one of the last seven H2Hs saw both teams score.[/p]
[p][i]Written by Aaron Murphy[/i][/p]