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Brazil plays Paraguay in Group D action at Allegiant Stadium on Friday, after a disappointing Copa America debut.
Colombia defeated the Paraguayans 2-1 on matchday one, negating their comeback, while Costa Rica held Selecao 0-0 in their opening game.
Team news: Paraguay vs. Brazil
Gustavo Velazquez and Andres Cubas are two Paraguayans who are now on yellow cards and could miss their final game on Friday.
Rodrigo Morinigo replaced Carlos Coronel in the Paraguayan starting lineup, and Damian Bobadilla earned his second senior cap.
On matchday one, Julio Enciso scored their lone goal—the first for the Brighton & Hove Albion forward with the national squad.
In their friendlies with the United States, Guilherme Arana took Wendell's place at left-back, and Eder Militao was chosen over Lucas Beraldo at center-back.
Douglas Luiz did not start for the first time since a 2-0 loss to Uruguay in October of last year. We sent in Endrick and Savio as substitutes; the latter was vying for a spot in the starting eleven, having scored three goals in his previous five games.
Alisson recorded his first clean sheet with Brazil since their 2022 World Cup triumph against Switzerland, while Marquinhos had a goal disallowed by VAR for offside in their opener.
Head-to-Head and Previous Matches
With Paraguay stifling the opponents in a tight, low block, the first thirty minutes of their encounter against Colombia went about as smoothly as Daniel Garnero could have imagined.
Daniel Munoz scored in the 32nd minute to put his team in the unfortunate position of having to chase a victory.
When La Albirroja is trailing, they are rarely successful; they have lost 18 straight games after giving up the first goal.
When trailing after 45 minutes, they lost their last three Copa America games, two of which were in regular time.
Despite facing setbacks, Paraguay has demonstrated resilience by winning three consecutive games following a loss.
Since 2016, when they followed up a close loss to Colombia (2-1) with a 1-0 loss to the hosts, the USA, they have not lost consecutive Copa America games in 90 minutes.
At SoFi Stadium in California, where Selecao missed multiple scoring chances, the biggest surprise of the first matchday was.
Dorival Junior's team dominated the Costa Ricans in almost every statistic, including possession (74%), predicted goals (1.66 to 0.03), and actions in the opponent area (49 to two).
The scoreboard, on the other hand, was the most significant statistic, as Brazil failed to score in two straight Copa America games, sending them back to the 2021 final (a 1-0 loss to Argentina).
Eight years ago, at this same competition, they were in the same situation and responded superbly, winning 7-1 over Haiti to follow up their opening 0-0 draw with Ecuador.
Since 2015, the Brazilians have not lost points in successive group games, even if they did so in 2016.
Though La Guaranies defeated Selecao in two of their previous three Copa America games, both times on penalties in 2015 and 2011, Selecao has not lost a Copa America match to Paraguay within 90 minutes since the 2004 group stage (2-1).
Our Predictions
Brazil to win HT@1.74 on Sky247.ng
After the first game, Brazil might need a wake-up call because, despite their youth, they possess too much attacking skill for us to believe they can keep Selecao off the scoreboard once more.
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