Mexico vs Venezuela Betting Tips & Predictions

Mexico are the form team in the Copa America right now. They opened their campaign with an excellent 3-1 win over Uruguay and followed it up with a confident win against Jamaica.

The victory against Jamaica wasn’t without it’s edgy moments though. Javier Hernandez headed in in the 18th minute to take him within a goal of equalling the all time scoring record for Mexico, but it was Jamaica that created the more clear cut openings in the first half. They had three clear opportunities to score in the first half, and they will be very disappointed not to have taken at least one of them. Mexico changed shape in the second half to try and solidify their defence, but it didn’t work as Jamaica kept breaking through them, and in all honesty they should have had a penalty 25 minutes from time. But it finally fell to Oribe Peralta to find the net again and wrap up the victory nine minutes before the final whistle.

This took Mexico’s points tally to six in the Copa America group stages, and their unbeaten streak to an impressive 21 matches, which is a natioanl record. They have won all of the last 11 games as well, keeping a clean sheet in nine of them and scoring 23 times.

Mexico now come into the final group game ahead of Venezuela on goal difference, meaning that a draw would be enough to secure the top spot for them and avoid a potential clash with Argentina in the first knockout stage.

Venezuela are having a dream competition so far. They beat Jamaica in a hard fought contest in the opener but then headed into a match against Uruguay, with the only saving grace being the absence of the injured Luis Suarez.

Venezuela went ahead when Alejandro Guerra fired a shot at Fernando Muslera from at least 50 yards out when he spotted the keeper off his line. Muslera managed to track back and get his fingers to it, but he could only push it onto the crossbar, and West Brom frontman Salomon Rondon was on hand to tuck in the rebound. Edinson Cavani missed two great chances in the first half and then spurned another fantastic opportunity in the last minute to send Uruguay crashing out of the Copa America. Luis Suarez stole the headlines though as he reacted furiously to being left out of the squad, punching the dugout and throwing his training bib away.

Venezuela know that three wins out of three might be a bit of a stretch, but they have nothing to lose now. Their win over Uruguay eliminated them and secured qualification for Venezuela, so a loss to Mexico wouldn’t be an issue at all. This means that they can go for the win without fear and should mean that they set up with the more attacking 4-2-3-1 they used against Jamaica. Arquimedes Figuera is suspended though and right back Roberto Rosales could miss out through injury.

Whilst Venezuela will be going for the win, I’m still not expecting anything too spectacular. They haven’t scored more than a goal in a match in their last six attempts, with all but one of these six games ending with under three goals scored in total. Mexico have kept nine clean sheets in their last 11 games and only seen three or more goals in two of their last eight outings.

Mexico will be focusing on improving their defence after a lucky escape against Jamaica as well, so we could see them less focused on attacking. I do think the Mexicans will get their win, after all this Copa America is turning out to be almost like a home advantage for them, but I’m not expecting too many goals. Odds of 19/20 for Under 2.5 Goals look very good value to me, and I’m backing a 1-0 win for Mexico at 11/2.