Ecuador – Paraguay. Mark O’Haire’s prediction

It’s been a remarkable start to World Cup qualifying for Ecuador who sit top of the tree with a 100% record from their first four matches.

La Tri stunned the planet by turning Argentina over 2-0 in Buenos Aires before beating Bolivia by the same scoreline on home soil with two late goals. Uruguay (2-1 home) and Venezuela (3-1 away) have since been seen off as Los Amarillos bid to book their place at a fourth World Cup in five.

Ecuador call on their Quito base’s killer altitude to give them a helping hand. And so when hosting continental rivals in qualifiers, La Tri’s exceptional record at Estadio Olimpico Atahualpa just cannot be ignored.

The hosts are unbeaten at home since 2009 and have W9-D1-L0 in their most recent 10 Quito dates. Since 2001, La Tri have lost just twice in 29 games with all the major South American sides falling to defeat.

So it’s no major surprise to see Ecuador chalked up as short as 1.53 here. But we can back Gustavo Quinteros’ men to score Over 1.5 Goals at 1.85 and that hols much more appeal considering it’s banked in all four of their fixtures thus far.

Paraguay arrive having overcome Bolivia 2-1 on home soil last time out, their second success (W2-D1-L1). A goalless draw when welcoming Argentina deserves credit but La Albirroja’s other fixtures have come against arguably the weakest teams, and far from convincingly.

Head coach Ramon Diaz raised a few eyebrows by calling up Juan Iturbe to the squad and is planning on bringing his troops to the coastal Ecuadoran city of Guayaquil until just hours before Thursday’s match, before travelling to Quito, in the hope it’ll help his squad adjust to the thin air.

However, I’d be surprised to see Paraguay stop the Ecuadorian train having W1-D2-L7 away qualifiers since the start of their 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign, shipping at least twice on six occasions.