Colombia vs Uruguay Prediction - Will Colombia Be Able To Continue Their Excellent Moment?

Next Saturday, Colombia and Uruguay will go head-to-head at the splendid Estádio Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro on what will be the second match of the World Cup’s Round of 16.

After their flawless campaign during the group stage, Colombia will now have a tougher bone to chew on their Round of 16 match as they will face their South American rivals of Uruguay. Last Tuesday, the Colombian team put up another vintage performance on their last group match against a brave Japanese side that wasn’t strong enough to stop this fantastic José Pékerman’s team. Colombia won the match by 4-1 with two goals from FC Porto’s striker Jackson Martínez, one from Cuadrado and closed the match with a top class goal from the flamboyant midfielder James Rodríguez. Pékerman, who was accused of adopting a fairly more conservative tactical approach during the World Cup (replacing the team’s usual 4-4-2 style by a more flexible 4-4-1-1 scheme, with James Rodríguez lurking behind the centre forward), apparently knows what he is doing since his team keeps getting better as the matches go by.

For the match against Uruguay, Colombia will need to redouble their attention levels especially back in the defence, because of their opponents’ deadly counter-attacks and sublime finishing skills from the Uruguayan forwards. Their centre backs have poor acceleration skills something that might cause them some upsets against fast players, such as Suárez and even Cavani.

For next Saturday’s clash, José Pékerman probably hasn’t yet decided who will be the team’s centre forward, but after his two goals against Japan, Jackson Martínez might have conquered the manager’s trust and he finally might claim his place at the team’s starting line-up.

As for Uruguay, the match against Colombia will certainly present a good opportunity for them to prove they are not, in fact, as bad as people claimed they were after their opening match against Costa Rica. After losing to Los Ticos on their World Cup opening match, both the team and their manager, Óscar Tabárez, faced heavy criticism from pundits and supporters alike. Despite it all, Tabárez rallied the troops and Uruguay managed to bounce back on their following matches, first against England and last Tuesday against Italy, as they won both clashes. The presence of the highly controversial Luis Suárez in the team was a boost of morale for his teammates and Uruguay looked a fairly more dangerous team after his return. The Liverpool’s versatile striker might, nevertheless, miss his team’s next match, if FIFA decide to punish him after yet another biting incident, this time with the Italian defender Chiellini.

Because of their fantastic campaign so far in the tournament, Colombia are firm favourites to win the match, nevertheless one can never rule out Uruguay, especially when they have Suárez on the team.

Colombia

Stats: W-4 L-0 D-1

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Uruguay

Stats: W-4 L-1 D-0

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Possible Line-ups

Colombia (4-4-1-1) - Ospina - Zúñiga - Perea - Yepes - Armero - Aguilar - Sanchez - Cuadrado - Ibarbo - J. Rodríguez - J. Martínez

Uruguay (4-4-2) - Muslera - Maxi Pereira - Lugano - Godín - Cáceres - Arévalo - Gargano - C. Rodríguez - Lodero - Suárez - Cavani

Prediction: Colombia 2 Uruguay 1