The big surprise of the South American Qualifiers is the selection of Venezuela. The ‘red wine’ earned merits to be in the qualifying zone World Cup Mexico, United States, Canada 2026: They beat Paraguay and Chile and tied with Brazil.
These results place him in fourth place in the standings of the qualifying with 7 points, same score as Uruguay and Brazil, but surpassed by goal differences. Now he arrives with the favorite poster to face Ecuador on Thursday, November 16 at 5:00 p.m. (Peru) at the Monumental stadium in Maturín for date 5 of the continental tournament.
Those led by the technician Fernando Batista They will try to take advantage of the home field to continue adding to the championship, in which they have been undefeated at home so far: they celebrated 1-0 with the ‘Guarani’ and 3-0 against the ‘mapochos’. This last result allowed the Venezuelans to arrive with some motivation to keep the three points.
For his part, the ‘tri‘He has almost the same present as his rival, he has the same numbers: two wins, a draw and a loss, but that is not reflected in the standings. The reason why the northerners only have four points is because they started with -3 due to the footballer’s case Byron Castillo. As recalled, FIFA decided to sanction this squad by taking away units in the current qualifying process.
Those of the strategist Felix Sanchez achieved a valuable goalless draw against Colombia in Quito and the motto is to follow more points that help climb to the first places.
The Venezuelan and Ecuadorian teams will have key absences for the match that will be played in Maturín. Fernando Batista decided not to call Josef Martinezthe attacker will be out due to a technical decision, but will have available Yeferson Soteldo and Salomón Rondón. The latter has not been able to score a goal so far against ‘tri‘.
For his part, the Spanish coach Felix Sanchez will have to deal with several casualties. They cannot be Enner Valencia, Moisés Ramírez, Pervis Estupiñán and Jhoanner Chávez, all due to injury. The most sensitive is that of the Ecuadorian goalscorer, he had to be called off because he did not recover.
Felix Sanchez technician of Ecuadordecided to call up three footballers to make up for the sensitive absences in front of the ‘red wine’: cited Leonardo Campana (Inter Miami) by Enner Valencia, Javier Burrai (Barcelona) by Moisés Ramírez, Leonel Quiñónez (Quito League) and Aníbal Chalá (Emelech) by Pervis Estupiñán and Jhoanner Chávez.
And on the side of Venezuela, Fernando Batista called again Eric Ramirez after the loss of Josef Martínez. The Atlético Nacional forward is having a good moment and will be vital for his team to win at home.
The ‘red wine’ I would use the following team: Rafael Romo in goal; The defense will be made up of Wilker Ángel, Jon Aramburú, Yordan Osorio, Luis Mago; while Tomás Rincón, Júnior Moreno, Yeferson Soteldo in the midfield; and the Venezuelan attack will be led by Jefferson Savarino, Darwin Machís and Salomón Rondón. DT: Fernando Batista
The northern team would line up with Hernán Galíndez in goal; Félix Torres, Willian Pacho, Piero Hincapié will be on the defensive line; In the middle of the field there will be Ángelo Preciado, Moisés Caicedo, Carlos Gruezo, Kendry Páez, Ángel Mena; and in the offensive zone with Kevin Rodríguez and Jordy Caicedo. DT: Felix Sanchez
