Colombia hope to give their 2010 World Cup dreams new strength when they host the Bolivian national team in Bogotá this Saturday.
As far as bookmakers are concerned, Colombia are clear favorites to win this game. The difference in quality and, evenly important, the home advantage could well decide things in Colombia’s favor.
After a good start in this qualification campaign, the Colombians showed a rather disappointing performance in 2008 and are now in seventh place. Bolivia have done slightly worse and are currently ninth.
Since their last qualifier, in October, Colombia played two friendly games. Nigeria were defeated 1-0 and a 2-0 win was earned over Haiti more recently.
Bolivia haven’t done as well, losing 0-2 to El Salvador in October followed by a painful 5-1 defeat by Mexico earlier this month.
The first match between these two nations in this campaign, played in Bolivia in October 2007, ended in a disappointing goalless draw. Since then, the Bolivians have done better when it is about scoring but also conceded more goals than any other side. Colombia scored only four goals in their first ten games, and strikers Darwin Quintero and Radamel Falcao hope to make a change to this statistic against Bolivia.
The match will be played at Bogotá’s El Campín stadium at 7:20pm local time.