Argentina vs Brazil Betting Tips

Argentina will be without Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero and they have made a really poor start to World Cup qualifying. They fell to a shock 2-0 home defeat against Ecuador on match-day 1 and failed to score again in their next game, a 0-0 draw in Paraguay.

Those results add extra significance to what was always going to be a huge game. Brazil are boosted by the return of Neymar for this one and they are unquestionably a far more potent side when he is involved. He missed their opening two qualifiers, a 2-0 defeat in Chile and a 3-1 win over Venezuela.

It is difficult to see Dunga being too adventurous here though given he is typically a cautious manager and will be well aware of how a defeat to Brazil’s arch rivals would go down back home. He is likely to set his side up to be difficult to break down and back his defence to keep chances to a minimum against what is an under-strength Argentina attack.

The game itself may therefore fail to live up to the hype which always surrounds arguably the biggest match in international football. At 8/11 consider backing there to be under 2.5 goals in it.

This game probably couldn’t have come at a worse time for an Argentina side that have been impressive over the past few years if a little inconsistent. At any point in recent times you would have strongly fancied them to get the better of Brazil on home soil but without their two best players it will be more difficult and the visitors could sneak a point from their trip to Buenos Aires.

Both sides still have players capable of moments of magic so a totally scoreless game is perhaps less likely than a low-scoring one and backing a 1-1 draw at 5/1 might be the way to go in the correct score market.