World Cup Qualifying Predictions, Picks and Betting Advice September 7-8

World Cup Qualifying Betting Preview September 7-8

WagerTalk Soccer handicapper Nick Borrman presents his September 7-8 World Cup Qualifying predictions and picks around key matches including Colombia vs Venezuela and Argentina vs Ecuador. Which teams is he looking to pick up points and which will have goal scoring? Read his betting preview now!

Colombia vs Venezuela | Thursday 9/7 | 7:00pm ET

Colombia -290 | Draw +425 | Venezuela +850
Asian Handicap: Colombia -1.5 | Total: 2.5

First competitive matches for both sides since March of 2022 as neither qualified for the World Cup, Colombia finishing just one point behind Peru for a playoff spot while Venezuela finished dead last in the group with just 10 points in 18 matches behind a 3-1-14 record and ugly 14:34 goal differential.

Away from home was astonishingly bad as Venezuela went an unperfect 0-9 with a 3:21 goal differential. The question is, will they be any better this time around?

The Venezuelan list of call-ups for this international break includes several MLS players with Inter Miami’s Josef Martinez leading the way in attack.

A few others likely to get key minutes include FC Cincinnati’s Junior Moreno and Philadelphia’s Jose Martinez, but the issue is there isn’t much, if any, upgrades in the starting XI that suggest a major improvement from the last qualifying round.

Colombia’s roster is full of players playing in some of the top European leagues including Juan Cuadrado from Inter Milan, Luis Diaz from Liverpool, Rafael Borre from Werder Bremen and defender Deiver Machado from Lens just to name a few.

Their lineup is simply better, and their results have proven that. Additionally, Venezuela’s last year of competition in friendlies looks like this: Guatemala, Honduras, Uzbekistan, Syria, Panama, UAE and Malta, while Colombia has faced Germany, Japan, South Korea, USA, and Mexico.

If you want to improve against good teams, you need to play them. That list, while perhaps giving some confidence, is not actually helping improve the squad.

Last qualifying term, Venezuela was held scoreless in six of their nine away fixtures, which I already mentioned they lost all of them, while Colombia hasn’t allowed Venezuela to score in any of the last four meetings, two of them during qualifying.

Pairing Colombia to win and Venezuela not to score just makes sense.

Prediction: Columbia Win to Nil -105 Bet365

(Same Game Parlay, some books will list Venezuela Not to Score which is the same)

Argentina vs Ecuador | Thursday 9/7 | 8:00pm ET

Argentina -330 | Draw +450 | Ecuador +1000
Asian Handicap: Argentina -1.5 | Total: 2.5

There was no way I was going to write an article covering South American qualifying and not talk about Argentina, especially with the Messi-mania going on in America right now as he has helped transform Inter Miami, the worst team in the league prior to his arrival, into perhaps the best team in the league.

However, he has always been a part of this Argentina side and is a big reason they have dominated the South American scene for as long as they have and of course, the reason they are the reigning World Cup champions. Sort of seems silly they must go through the motions to actually qualify.

There is no doubt this match will be one-sided, and that Argentina will win the match. Laying -330 though is not attractive, and even the -1.5 handicap is a little tough as Ecuador can play even the top teams tough as evidenced by the fact that they covered this handicap in both matches during the last qualifying term.

Ecuador also played surprisingly well in the World Cup last November beating Qatar and pushing Netherlands to a draw, before losing 1-2 to Senegal and ultimately failing to get out of the group. But they scored in all three matches so I’m hesitant to go with the same ‘Win to Nil’ prop we took in the Colombia match.

Instead, I expect both teams to keep this low scoring with Argentina finding a way to win, so I’ll pair Argentina with Under 3.5 Goals.

Prediction: Argentina + Under 3.5 Goals -120 BetMGM (Same Game Parlay)

Uruguay vs Chile | Friday 9/8 | 7:00pm ET

Uruguay -145 | Draw +270 | Chile +425
Asian Handicap: Uruguay -0.75 | Total: 2.25

Uruguay has long been the 3rd best team in South America with the like of Luis Suarez, Edinson Cavani and Diego Godin all leading the charge for the last 14-17 years. But with all three no longer apart of the team, there are a lot of new faces and young players looking to make their mark on the national team.

A couple of midfielders lead the way in Nandez and Valverde who have each made 49 appearances for country, but some of the youngest and newest players will likely get most of the attention as Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez and Orlando City’s Facundo Torres try and replace the offense of the old regime.

While on paper, I do believe they have the better roster, it takes time on the field with one another to develop a chemistry to win and I’m not willing to yet lay this number on a rather unproven group of players.

By comparison, Chile has five players with at least 72 caps including three of them with at least 138! That’s basically the same length of time that has left the Uruguayan squad with Alexis Sanchez, Arturo Vidal and Gary Medel all playing since 2006-07.

They too have several young and inexperienced players as well, but that leadership helps them on the field to direct traffic and especially on the back line, keep everyone organized.

Goals are unlikely to come easy in this match as these two teams will be battling for those Top-5 spots and getting off to a strong start in qualifying will be crucial as there are five teams that are vying for spots 3-5 behind Argentina and Brazil.

I think that will keep this match safer and a little slower which stays in line with the recent trend as three of the last four meetings between these teams have finished Under the current total.

Prediction: Under 2.25 Goals -115 Bet365

This is an Asian Handicap, also listed as a split line of 2.0, 2.5.