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Copa America Group A: Second-string Mexico can beat Bolivia

| 12.06.2015
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Mexico manager Miguel Herrera has gone for a relatively inexperienced squad of 23 for the Copa America in Chile, due to his preference to the Gold Cup also this summer, although one name in particular stands out.

Legendary defensive player Rafael Marquez, 36, will get the chance to further his international career and add to his 124 caps to date, starting with El Tri’s first match of the competition against Bolivia.

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Herrera’s men are the odds-on favourites with Coral at 8/13 for victory, despite their second-string squad, and will hope that their experience will take them through Group A, which they are 5/1 to top and 10/11 to finish in the top two.

Despite missing the likes of Javier Hernandez, Carlos Vela, Giovani dos Santos, Guillermo Ochoa and many others, the Aztecs do have seven plus-30s players, and having older heads as well as youngsters hoping to prove a point could work well.

One of those up-and-coming stars include Atletico Madrid forward Raul Jimenez, who enjoyed limited game-time at the former La Liga champions last season so will be fresh and raring to go. The 24-year-old is odds-on at 4/5 to net anytime, and 7/2 for two or more.

Mexico can also take heart from the fact that they have a brilliant record against Bolivia, and have won each of their last seven meetings with them to nil. They are 31/20 to beat them without conceding again.

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However, perhaps surprisingly, El Verde are undefeated in both Copa America head-to-heads against Mexico, having defeated them 3-1 in the 1997 semi-finals on home soil – they eventually lost in the final – and drawing 0-0 in the 1993 group stages.

Bolivia, therefore, are very tempting 5/1 shouts to cause an upset and win this fixture at the Estadio Sausalito, but they are more fancied at 3/1 to claim a crucial point. They are, though, the group outsiders at 5/1 for a top two finish.

El Verde’s main threats going forward will come from former Wigan Athletic loanee Marcelo Moreno, who is price at 11/4 to score anytime, and the unfortunate-named Paraguay-born Pablo Escobar (10/3).

Betting tipRaul Jimenez scores two or more @ 7/2

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Author

Sam Barnard

Sam has been writing for Coral since January 2014, and is the assistant editor of the news site. As well as the main betting sports, football, tennis and cricket, he covers the likes of golf, F1 and darts too, the latter of which has become a particular favourite. Sam enjoys playing as much as writing about sports, but niggling injuries have limited his participation in recent years, so is happy to mainly watch the pros such as Manchester United, Yorkshire CCC, Raymond van Barneveld and even Gibraltar national football team instead.