Football Bet of the Day: Hosts can edge out pesky Panama

Having won their opening match of the Copa America on home soil, tournament hosts USA can all but seal their place in the knockout stage with a win over Panama in Atlanta on Thursday.

Read on for my Football Bet of the Day for Thursday, June 27.

Football Odds

The States are warm 1-3 favourites to win their second outing, which kicks off at 11pm, but they may be forced to work harder than they were in their 2-0 win over Bolivia on matchday one.

Panama fell to a 3-1 defeat to Uruguay but they held on at just 1-0 down before goals in the 85th and 90th minutes swung the game in the favour of La Celeste before a Panama consolation.

Los Canaleros will feel hard done by, but the match showed they can hold their own against the big boys and they won't make things easy for the USA.

Panama vs USA Odds

USA have won 18 of their 26 meetings with Panama and they are fancied to come out on top in this latest encounter.

A 2-0 win over Bolivia was a nice way for the tournament hosts to get their Copa America campaign underway but a tricky second outing lies in store for them this week.

Panama frustrated Uruguay for a long time in their first fixture of the finals and they will stick to the same game plan against the States.

Their record against the USA isn't great but three of their four wins in this fixture have come on American soil, so this is scope to expect another competitive performance from Los Canaleros.

However, USA won't want to make any mistakes with Uruguay to come in their final group game so a solid showing should be expected from the hosts, who have won five of the last seven meetings while scoring 20 goals in the process.

Panama nicked a consolation goal in the loss against Uruguay and their struggles in front of goal suggest a low-scoring victory for the United States in the Mercedes Benz Arena.

Los Canaleros have failed to score in three of their last six outings and the home side are evens to win with a clean sheet on Thursday.

That looks a tempting wager, and under 2.5 match goals is another appealing way to go for a bet at 5-6, but better value looks to be backing it up with a USA win too. That pays out at 2-1 and would have copped in the Stars & Stripes' last two victories.

Panama held USA to a 1-1 draw when they last met just under a year ago, and only two of the last five meetings have yielded a goals total of three or more.

A USA win in a contest featuring no more than two goals looks the best betting opportunity in this intriguing encounter.

You can read all our latest Football Bets of the Day at our dedicated Betfred Insights content hub.