Panama and Mexico will square off in the Nations League semifinal Thursday, meeting for the first time since their epic Gold Cup final last summer which Mexico won 1-0. Panama smoked Costa Rica in the quarterfinal with a 6-1 aggregate scoreline, while Mexico came back against Honduras in the second leg and won the penalty shootout 4-2 to advance.
Let’s take a closer look at the match, with odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook.
Panama v. Mexico
Date: Thursday, March 21
Time: 10:15 p.m. ET
TV channel: Univision
Live stream: Paramount+, fuboTV
Odds, picks & predictions
Panama: +340
Draw: +225
Mexico: -110
Moneyline pick: Draw +225
Panama will still be reeling from that 1-0 defeat last summer, which saw Mexico win on a goal in the 88th minute from Santiago Gimenez. El Tri return most of their squad from that game, headlined by Guillermo Ochoa, Jesus Gallardo and Luis Chavez. You can expect Hirving Lozano to be in the team this time after not being available for that Gold Cup final. Panama will be hoping for Jose Fajardo and Alberto Quintero to have better luck in front of goal in this encounter.
Although Mexico are the better team, they have shown they can be quite wasteful when having the opportunity to put away goals. I think Panama will sit back in this game and look for chances on counters rather than press forward naturally. I like this to end in a draw in regular time.
