Brazil started their Copa America campaign against Bolivia defeating them 3-0 in the first group stage match of the tournament by a brace from Philippe Coutinho and a goal from Everton Soares. The South American giants are the host nation of this year's edition of the Copa America. They will miss the services of Neymar as he crashed out of the tournament due to an injury.
Schedule and Preview
This is the 46th edition of the tournament and will be played out in five different cities. The tournament started on June 14 local time and the final will be played out on July 7.
This year's tournament will be a very important one for the likes of Lionel Messi. The Argentine legend is probably going to play his last Copa this time around and he is yet to get any success for his national team so he will look forward to winning it in Brazil. The Argentine team is a collection of a mostly new bunch of players who can actually change the course of the game as they have no fear on the pitch.
Lionel Scaloni, caretaker coach of Argentina will be tested n this tournament as after he came in charge after Argentina's exit from the Fifa World Cup 2018 he was appointed as the interim coach replacing Jorge Sampaoli, this is the first time he is going to face any major task. Argentina will definitely like to win the trophy and equal the number of Copa trophies with Uruguay but they need to play as a team rather than depending on Messi. Their group consists of Qatar, Colombia and Paraguay, they will start their campaign against Colombia on June 15 local time.
Host and five-time World Cup champion Brazil have also been in good form before the tournament and they had a perfect start to the tournament. They are the major title contender, this time around. Though they will miss the services of Neymar they have the like of Philipe Coutinho, Firminho, Gabriel Jesus among many who are in top form after performing well for their clubs, to carry Brazil all the way to the South American glory.
Other contenders are Uruguay, former champion Chile and Uruguay. Chile is no expected to win this time around because of their poor performance in the recent past. They were even unable to qualify for the Fifa World Cup 2018 and their performance has been on the low since then. Colombia with the likes of James Rodriguez, Cuadrado and Muriel can also dream of winning the coveted trophy.
The dark horse of the tournament will be Peru who defeated Australia in the World Cup and gave tough competition to France. While Uruguay can also win the tournament for the 16th time as they have been in good form in the World Cup.
All in all, it will be very interesting to see Argentina legend Lionel Messi's last attempt at winning the tournament.
