It’s hard to fathom that Chile have had far more Copa America success than Argentina in recent years, winning two of the last three renewals while La Albiceleste are still searching for their first title since 1993. They have reached four of the last six finals and just failed to get over the line on each occasion though.

This is likely Lionel Messi’s last chance at glory, and in truth, he’s not the only one of Argentina’s key players that are ageing with Angel di Maria, Sergio Aguero and Nicolas Otamendi also coming to the end of their careers. That suggests that something of a rebuild phase is needed at Argentina in the near future, and their results certainly look to back that up. Despite going unbeaten in 13 matches now, they’ve drawn just under half of those including three of their last four outings. These results are also a seriously good indication heading into this tournament, with 11 of those games coming against fellow South American sides.

That said, it’s not as though Chile are in flying form themselves having won just three of their last 15 matches over 90 minutes, with those victories coming over Bolivia, Peru, and Guinea, none of whom are really on the same level as Argentina. La Roja have only once beaten their rivals over 90 minutes in 24 meetings going back to 1930, with that win coming 1-0 in 2008, with both of their Copa America final wins coming on penalties after 0-0 draws. In fact, none of the last nine meetings going back to 2011 have been separated by more than a strike, and that’s a highly likely outcome again here in the curtain raiser.

Only one of Argentina’s last eight outings have been separated by more than a goal, which came 2-0 against a poor Peru side who currently sit bottom of the CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifying group, so we can’t see Messi and co running away with this one. They’ll be nervous heading into this competition, arguably more so than in years gone by as they no time is running out for this generation to lift the trophy, and that could play against them here. They’ve only won their opening Copa America fixture once in their last four attempts, drawing two of them and there’s every chance we could see another tentative stalemate on Sunday.

Chile have only lost one of their last six fixtures, drawing half including just last week against Argentina themselves, while each of their last four defeats have come by narrow 2-1 margins, the most recent three seeing them concede needless late goals to lose, while the other against La Albiceleste was 10 v 10 from the 37th minute onwards so will have little baring.

Draw @ 3.8