Venezuela vs Peru prediction: SOUTH AMERICA: World Championship – Qualification betting tips on match 2025-03-25 00:00.
[p]Venezuela host Peru with their 2026 World Cup qualification (WCQ) hopes hanging by a thread. The home side have never previously reached a World Cup finals and that looks increasingly unlikely to change next year given their 2-1 defeat to Ecuador last week means they start this round eighth in the CONMEBOL table, seven points shy of an automatic qualification spot with five rounds to go. [/p]
[p]While Venezuela are still within reach of the inter-confederation play-off place (seventh), their recent form even makes that appear a tall order. One would have to go back to October 2023 for the last time they tasted a victory in this competition (D5, L4), with three defeats from their last four WCQ games highlighting how Fernando Batista’s men are trending in the wrong direction. [/p]
[p]Although Peru started the round two points worse off than their hosts, they received a shot in the arm on the last matchday when they beat Bolivia 3-1 at home. That result means just two of their last five WCQ games have ended in defeat (W2, D1), and both those losses came against stern opposition in the form of Argentina (1-0) and Brazil (4-0). [/p]
[p]While they still have plenty of work to do to reach their first World Cup since 2018, a dominant H2H record should boost confidence that the away side can keep building momentum. Peru are undefeated in their last eight games in this matchup, a run dating back to 2015 (W4, D4), including a 2-1 win on their last trip to Venezuela. [/p]
[p]Players to watch: Venezuela’s Jhonder Cádiz has registered a goal contribution in three successive appearances for club and country (G2, A1), but each game saw him finish on the losing side. Peru forward Andy Polo opened the scoring to maintain his good recent form with five goal contributions (G2, A3) in his past four combined national and club games, yet in contrast to Cádiz, each of his four games ended in wins. [/p]
[p]Hot stat: Despite their recent 3-1 win, no CONMEBOL side had scored fewer WCQ goals than Peru (six) coming into the matchday. [/p]
[p][i]Written by David H[/i][/p]