Uruguay vs Uzbekistan
International Friendlies
Date: Friday, 8th June 2018
Kick-Off at 00:10 UK / 01:10 CET
Venue: Estadio Centenario, Montevideo.
Whilst the other World Cup contestants took advantage of the preparations period to test themselves against other national outfits before the competition, Uruguay skipped serious checks as they will only feature a single warm-up friendly before they open the tournament next Friday against Egypt.
The opposition in La Celeste’s lone friendly comes in the likes of Uzbekistan, meaning the hosts obviously aim to boost up the confidence with a comprehensive victory at Estadio Centenario in the capital of Montevideo. Oscar Tabarez had reasons to be thrilled with team’s showings at the China Cup back in March as Uruguay ended up winning the tournament after clinching clean sheet wins over Czech Republic and Wales.
Uzbekistan will miss out on the World Cup once again, but they were super close to find a place among the top two in the Group A of the final round in Asian WC Qualifications. They took only a single point in last three qualifiers which caused the drop to fourth place as White Wolves ended just two points short of Korea Republic in second.
Uruguay vs Uzbekistan: Head-to-head
This will be the first ever head to head match between Uruguay and Uzbekistan.
Uruguay vs Uzbekistan: Predictions
In spite of a rather successful qualifying campaign, Ruzykul Berdyev left the bench for Uzbekistan who are yet to recover under the new manager Timur Kapadze. The team lost two and drew one of last three friendlies with the new coach in charge. The main problems for the White Wolves happen to appear in the final third as Uzbekistan notched just one goal in last three matches against Senegal, Morocco and Iran.
Uruguay don’t share such woes with the likes of Edinson Cavani, Luis Suarez and Christian Stuani up front. Their defensive line looked rock solid at the aforementioned China Cup and we can hardly see the out-of-form Uzbekistan side bagging a goal here.
We thus expect a comprehensive confidence-boosting victory for the hosts here and we’ll back Uruguay to win by three or more goals as the main betting option at the odds of 2.00.
Uruguay vs Uzbekistan: Betting Tips
- Uruguay -2.5 handicap @ 2.00
- HT/FT Uruguay/Uruguay @ 1.40.
