Football Previews
Spain under 20’s face off against Mexico under 20’s at the Turk Telekom Arena this Tuesday afternoon in the last 16 of the FIFA Under 20 World Cup.
Spain are currently clear tournament favourites with bookmakers at odds of 6/4 having won their 3 group matches convincingly. Spain were impressive in their 4:1 win over USA and they followed that victory up with a 1:0 win over Ghana and a 2:1 win over France in their latest outing.
Mexico have disappointed thus far having been fancied to go far in this tournament; they lost to Greece in their opening game 2:1 and followed that loss up with another against Paraguay (1:0). They salvaged their tournament in their last game against Mali winning 4:1 and qualifying by way of finishing third and scoring more goals than other third placed teams.
Recent form:
Spain U20 – W W W D W L W
Mexico U20 – W L L D D L W
Spain have lost just one in seven while Mexico have won just two of their last seven.
The last 16 draw currently looks like this:
Greece play Uzbekistan at the same time as Spain vs Mexico, France vs Turkey and Nigeria vs Uruguay take place on Tuesday evening at 19:00 CET. The remaining games take place on Wednesday.
Spain and Mexico haven’t met at under 20 level in recent years so there is no form to go on.
Bookmakers side strongly with Spain.
Current betting odds: Spain U20 (8/15) Draw (10/3) Mexico U20 (9/2)
Gamingtips Prediction – Spain U20 3:2 Mexico U20
Although Spain have impressed so far in this tournament, Mexico are being taken lightly with bookmakers due to their poor start to the tournament.
Prior to meeting Mexico last time, Mali had conceded just one goal in their first two games and Mexico were able to score four against them and win impressively.
Mexico are able to perform under pressure and having made it through to the knockout stages of the tournament by performing in their final group game, we could see a carefree performance from the Mexicans and potentially a huge upset.
The real key to this game is whether or not Spain can dominate possession and pin Mexico back or if Mexico are able to absorb pressure and play counterattacking football.
Spain do have a very impressive side on paper and although we should expect them to win, we should expect a strong showing from Mexico and perhaps for the first time, see how Spain perform under real pressure.
Odds of 8/15 will seem like value to some punters who can back Spain to win the entire tournament at odds of 6/4 however if Mexico had a better group stage, Spain would most likely be 8/11 or EVS to win this game.
This game gets underway at 16:00 CET and can be viewed live on Eurosport.
Alternatively you can keep up to date at the bottom of our livescores page
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