Colombia, ’s escort, visits Bolivia this Thursday for qualifying: time, and formations

Colombia, ’s escort, visits Bolivia this Thursday for qualifying: time, and formations
Colombia, Argentina’s escort, visits Bolivia this Thursday for qualifying: time, TV and formations

Colombia will put its unbeaten record in Cup qualifying at stake when it climbs to a stadium located more than 4,150 meters above sea level on Thursday, taking on an emboldened Bolivia. The game is played this Thursday, at 5 p.m. and will be seen on DirecTV in .

To acclimatize before the match at the El Alto Municipal stadium, the Colombian team led by Argentine Néstor Lorenzo settled five days in advance in Cochabamba — in the central region of Bolivia — which is about 2,800 meters above sea level. . Their stars Luis Díaz and James Rodríguez only joined training on Monday.

“There is no magic recipe, one looks for variants that try to appease the effects of altitude,” Lorenzo replied in response to the statements of the Bolivian strategist, Óscar Villegas, who assured that said acclimatization “will not contribute anything” to Colombia because the match will be played at more height than that of Cochabamba.

“It is a match with special circumstances, the physical part is important in terms of the flight of the ball, how light it is at altitude, it flies faster,” Lorenzo added.

After eight dates, Colombia is in second place in the standings, two points behind leader Argentina, and has not lost a match. They arrive in tune after having beaten Argentina 2-1 — with goals from Yerson Mosquera and James) in Barranquilla last month.

Colombia will miss defender Daniel Muñoz, from Crystal Palace of the English Premier League, due to a muscle injury. Muñoz will also miss next Tuesday’s duel against Chile in the Colombian city of Barranquilla.

Who will not miss the event is James, the 33-year-old midfielder who was proclaimed the best player in the Copa América in the middle of the year and in which Colombia was runner-up after losing to Argentina in the final.

After the Copa América, James returned to European football with Rayo Vallecano of Spain. His signing occurred after the start of the season and his development took time.

“James is fine, he has gained a lot in training at Rayo Vallecano and has played a lot of minutes,” Lorenzo said. “I don’t know how the game goes on in that special circumstance (height), I don’t know how anyone is going to perform or react as the game goes on and we will analyze it minute by minute. To all the players, not just James.”

Prior to the double date in October, James recalled his 13 years with the national team by expressing on his account on the X network (formerly Twitter) that he arrives “with the greatest enthusiasm once again.”

Villegas excited the Bolivians in September after achieving two victories: a 4-0 win over Venezuela in El Alto and later a 2-1 away win against Chile, rising to eighth place, putting himself within reach of the direct qualification positions. For the 2026 World Cup, South America received six direct places, plus a ticket for an intercontinental playoff.

On Thursday, Bolivia wants to repeat the formula against Venezuela and will seek to drown out Colombia to secure three vital points to continue in the fight and seek to complete the date with the visit to Argentina.

Villegas called 27 footballers 15 days in advance, including Miguel Terceros, the striker for Santos from Brazil. La Verde is looking for a replacement for experienced goalkeeper Carlos Lampe. who suffered a rupture of the Achilles tendon in his right leg, in the match against Venezuela.

The possible formations of Bolivia and Colombia

Bolivia: Guillermo Viscarra; Diego Medina, Luis Haquin, Marcelo Suárez; Héctor Cuellar, Robson Matheus, Lucas Chávez, Roberto Fernández; Ervin Vaca, Carmelo Algarañaz, Ramiro Vaca.

Colombia: Camilo Vargas; Daniel Muñoz, Dávinson Sánchez, Willer Ditta, Juan David Cabal; Nelson De Ossa, Matheus Uribe; Jhon Arias, James Rodríguez, Luis Díaz; Roger Martínez.

The statistics of the South American qualifiers

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