Very few people would have predicted that Argentina would need to win their final Group A match against Costa Rica to be sure of qualifying for the Copa America knockout stages, but that is the situation they find themselves in. The tournament hosts are a huge 1/6 on with Paddy Power, who will be streaming the match live on their website, while Costa Rica are available at a healthy 14/1 to cause a massive upset on Monday night.
Potentially a draw, at 6/1, could be enough for the Argentineans as they could then qualify as one of the best third placed teams, but their fans will be hoping they make sure with three points.
They sit one point behind Costa Rica in the Group A table in third place and Colombia have already sealed top spot. It is likely to be another nervy affair at the Estadio Mario Alberto Kempes and all eyes will be on Lionel Messi as he has failed to hit the heights in the national shirt once again.
Messi has consistently been criticised for failing to produce the goods on the international stage and many want to see the same Messi that lit up the Champions League and La Liga with Barcelona last season. We fancy he will come to the fore for this country this week as he is far too good to be kept down for too long and he is a 5/2 favourite to score first.
Nine of Argentina's last eleven matches have involved at least two goals, although Carlos Tevez could lose his starting place after a series of below par displays. The bigger concern for Argentina will be the fact that they have kept just two clean sheets in six and Costa Rica will hope to cause an upset.
Costa Rica have only failed to score in two of their last thirteen matches and their striker Joel Campbell has taken to international football impressively. Campbell has scored two in five for Costa Rica and he can be backed at tempting odds of 14/1 to score first with PaddyPower.com, despite failing to score for his club side Saprissa so far.
The Costa Ricans will have to do without the suspended David Guzman and they will no doubt look to keep it tight. They managed to draw 0-0 with Argentina in a friendly in San Jose in March and five of their last seven matches have involved under 2.5 goals, with under 2.5 a decent punt at 6/5.
However, they have never beaten Argentina in their history and they have only won one of their last four matches. They could make life difficult for Argentina but it is difficult to see the hosts failing to win this one and the correct score of 2-1 could be the way to go at 17/2.
Argentina v Costa Rica Tips
Tip #1: Lionel Messi to score first @ 5/2 with PaddyPower.com
Tip #2: Argentina to win 2-1 @ 17/2 with PaddyPower.com
Tip #3: Under 2.5 goals @ 6/5 with PaddyPower.com
Match Betting
1/6 Argentina
6/1 Draw
14/1 Costa Rica
Correct Score Odds
5/1 Argentina 1-0
9/2 Argentina 2-0
17/2 Argentina 2-1
11/2 Argentina 3-0
14/1 Argentina 3-1
13/1 Draw 0-0
10/1 Draw 1-1
30/1 Draw 2-2
40/1 Costa Rica 1-0
First Goalscorer Odds
5/2 Lionel Messi
3/1 Gonzalo Higuain
3/1 Sergio Aguero
7/2 Carlos Tevez
7/2 Diego Milito
4/1 Ezequiel Lavezzi
8/1 Angel Di Maria
9/1 Esteban Cambiasso
12/1 No Goalscorer
14/1 Joel Campbell
14/1 Josue Martinez
20/1 Randall Brenes
Odds supplied by PaddyPower.com, who provide live streaming and several other betting markets, including live betting in-running, for all Copa America fixtures.
Posted: Monday, 11th July 2011
Author: Chris James
Tags: copa america, argentina, costa rica, lionel messi, paddypower,
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