
Ecuador vs Venezuela Prediction and Betting Tips: Best bets for Copa America clash

Tournament dark horses Ecuador kick off their 2024 Copa America campaign with a game against Venezuela at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California on Saturday.
The action gets underway at 11pm (UK time) and football fans can expect to see plenty of familiar faces amongst the Ecuadorian squad in particular, which is headlined by Chelsea midfielder Moises Caicedo.
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Few nations in South America possess a stronger crop of young talent than Ecuador at present, as they look to go further than their best ever result at the Copa America, a pair of fourth-placed finishes in 1959 and 1993, this time around.
Moises Caicedo remains the pick of the bunch after joining Premier League outfit Chelsea for over £100 million from Brighton last summer, and he’ll be tasked with anchoring his nation’s midfield in this tournament.
Elsewhere, defender Piero Hincapie featured heavily for Bayer Leverkusen as they won the Bundesliga this season, whilst wonderkid Kendry Paez and veteran Enner Valencia could form a formidable partnership in the attacking third.
As for Venezuela, they seem much more reliant on their experience compared to their matchday one opponents, especially with captain Tomas Rincon in midfield who currently sits atop of their all-time caps list with 132 appearances.
Their main threat here and in the tournament overall is likely to be veteran striker Salomon Rondon. He’s netted 41 times across 104 caps in total and has scored more goals for Venezuela than any other player in history.
Ecuador vs Venezuela Tips
With Ecuador losing just two of their last 10 internationals and with those defeats coming against powerhouses in the form of Italy and Argentina, they rightly enter this opening fixture as the heavy favourites.
That strong form saw them win both of their final two warm-up friendlies before this summer’s competition, but with no clean sheet in four, they continue to struggle when it comes to holding their opposition off the scoresheet.
With eight of Ecuador’s last 11 Copa America fixtures overall witnessing over three goals scored and four of their last six meetings with Venezuela following the same trend, backing them to take victory but without picking up a clean sheet in the process could be the play.
Although he’s perhaps more comfortable operating as a central defender, Ecuador’s recent internationals have seen 22-year-old Piero Hincapie shifted to play at left-back instead.
That shouldn’t really come as too much of a surprise overall as the young defender has operated in a similar spot for Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen over the last 12 months, but for his national side it comes with the hope that he can find the net on a more frequent basis.
In Ecuador’s final pre-tournament friendly, Hincapie scored just his second international goal across 33 caps, but with his first coming against Venezuela in November 2021, backing a repeat of that in this opener at 14/1 seems a potential risk worth taking.
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