Our prediction for this World Cup 2026 match:
Following a boring goalless draw with Chile, Colombia will look to return to winning ways in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers when they take on Uruguay on Thursday evening. Los Cafeteros are eyeing their third consecutive clean sheet and they are likely to rely on their rock-solid defence against La Celeste. Fiorentina man Yerry Mina has yet to overcome his injury, with fellow defender Jhon Lucumi missing out as well. Jefferson Lerma and Guillermo Cuadrado have been left out of the squad.
Uruguay, on the other hand, aim to make amends for a 2-1 loss to Ecuador. As Marcelo Bielsa’s men are likely to adopt a defence-minded approach as well, we believe that there is a big value in betting on under 2.5 goals. Both Ronald Araujo and Matias Vecino are back to the squad, while the likes of Maxi Gomez, Luis Suarez, and Edinson Cavani did not make the cut.
Highlighted Player (Duvan Zapata):
Duvan Zapata was born in Cali, Colombia on 1 April, 1991. The 186-cm-tall attacker started his youth career at America de Cali, playing for the club between 2004 and 2008. In 2008 he made his debut for the first team and three years later he scored his first hat-trick for the Colombian outfit, in a 3-2 win over Deportivo Pereira.
In 2011 he signed a loan deal with Estudiantes and he found the net for the Argentine team on his debut against Belgrano. After scoring 11 goals in 37 appearances for Estudiantes, the Colombian striker joined Napoli in 2013, but he failed to establish himself as a first-choice attacker.
On 22 July, 2015 Zapata joined fellow Serie A team Udinese on loan and it has to be noted that he scored eight goals in 24 league appearances for the Zebrette. Duvan Zapata has 5 caps for Colombia U20 team, but he has yet to make his debut for the senior side.
Highlighted Team (Uruguay):
La Celeste are one of the most successful South American nations. Uruguay are frequently the champions of the continent having most recently won the tournament in 2011. They have won the Copa America a record 15 times including the first ever edition of the competition in 1916, while the team has also won FIFA World Cup in two occasions including the inaugural competition in 1930 when they defeated Argentina 4-2 in the final as hosts.
Their second World Cup title came in 1950 when Uruguay and Brazil played a legendary match which recorded a higher attendance than any other football match in the history of the game. Uruguay is the smallest country in the world to have won a World Cup by population, but La Celeste are proud of their football heritage which yielded some of the best footballers in the world over the course of history.
Most notable player of the current selection is Barcelona striker Luis Suarez, who is also the team’s top scorer with 45 goals to his name.