Brazil vs Ecuador Betting Tips & Predictions

Who knows how Brazil will do? They are an historic powerhouse in international football but they have underperformed for a while now. Their talent pool doesn’t seem to be churning out the same quantity of world class players as it used to and their primary attacking force, Neymar, is being saved for the Olympics later on in the summer.

This leaves Brazil relying on Willian for all their creative outlets, especially after the talented Douglas Costa was injured. Up front they have the rather disappointing Jonas or a 19 year old striker who scored on his debut to choose from, and to be honest it looks like most of their threat will come from Phillipe Coutinho and Willian. They are strong at the back though with Dani Alves, Filipe Luis, Miranda, and Marquinhos.

Brazil have only lost once since the end of last year’s Copa America though. Chile beat them 2-0 in the first of their World Cup qualifiers,after they won friendlies against Costa Rica and United States. Since the defeat to Chile they have won three and drawn three of their six matches, leaving them down in 6th position in the qualifying table. There is still a long way to go of course, but as it stands Brazil aren’t going to the next World Cup.

Ecuador, on the other hand, are having an excellent qualifying campaign so far. They sit in 2nd position in the table with 13 points from their opening six games, and they are only behind leaders Uruguay on goal difference.

They did lose their warm up friendly for this game against host nation United States though, following on from a 3-1 defeat to Colombia which put an end to their unbeaten start to qualifying. They have managed to beat Honduras, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Venezuela since last year’s Copa America though.

I think Ecuador could surprise some people and get a result in their Copa America opener. This Brazil team is fairly unfamiliar and there are a number of key players missing such as Thiago Silva, Neymar, and Douglas Costa. They do have some top quality players, but Ecuador have proved that they can nullify these with results against Argentina and Uruguay.

Brazil have only won three of their last seven matches as well, so odds of 17/20 for an Ecuador Win or Draw Double Chance look excellent value, and I’m backing a 1-1 correct score prediction at 6/1 as well.