Copa America 2019 draw: Host nation Brazil will face Bolivia, Venezuela and Peru while Lionel Messi’s Argentina have tough group including Colombia, Paraguay and guest nation Qatar
- Copa America host Brazil were drawn in a relatively easy group for this year
- They will face Bolivia, Venezuela and Peru at this year’s tournament
- While Lionel Messi’s Argentina the toughest path of the top-seeded teams
- They were placed in a group with Colombia, Paraguay and guest nation Qatar
Copa America host Brazil were drawn in a relatively easy group for this year’s tournament, where they will face Bolivia, Venezuela and Peru.
The draw was made on Thursday in Rio de Janeiro, and gave Lionel Messi’s Argentina the toughest path of the top-seeded teams as they were placed in a group with Colombia, Paraguay and guest nation Qatar.
In the third group, Uruguay will start their campaign against Ecuador, then play against guest Japan before finishing against defending champions Chile.
The Copa America draw for this year’s tournament was made on Thursday in Rio de Janeiro
The top two teams in each group plus the two best third-place finishers will qualify for the quarter-finals.
Brazil will open the tournament against Bolivia on June 14 at Sao Paulo’s Morumbi stadium, a team that hasn’t reached the World Cup since 1994. Venezuela have never qualified for the event, while Peru played in their first World Cup since 1982 last year in Russia.
Seeking to end their title drought that dates back to the 1993 Copa America edition, Argentina will face Colombia on June 15 in Salvador before playing Paraguay four days later in Belo Horizonte.
Their last match in the group stage will be on June 23 against Qatar in Porto Alegre, a Southern Brazil city close to the Argentine border.
Uruguay will debut on June 16 against Ecuador in Belo Horizonte.
Tournament organizers also said it will put an additional 228,000 tickets on sale on Friday.
Most of the first batch of Copa America tickets that were released earlier in January has already been sold.