Copa America 2019: Odds, TV Schedule, Live Stream, Prediction for Thursday

Uruguay are back in action at the 2019 Copa America on Thursday, when they take on Japan in Group C at the Arena do Gremio in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

La Celeste made a confident start to the tournament with a 4-0 thrashing of Ecuador. Japan, meanwhile, lost their opener by the same scoreline to Chile.

As such, Uruguay are strong favourites to win on Thursday and book their spot in the quarter-finals.

Date: Thursday, June 20

Time: 8 p.m. local (7 p.m. ET, 12 a.m. BST Friday)

TV Info: Telemundo (U.S.), Premier Sports (UK)

Live Stream: Telemundo Deportes En Vivo, ESPN+ (U.S.) and Premier Player (UK)

Match Odds (via Oddschecker): Uruguay 3-14, Draw 13-2, Japan 17-1 

Prediction: Uruguay 3-0 Japan

Uruguay are in fantastic goalscoring form. Their three previous results before the drubbing of Ecuador were a 3-0 win over Panama, a 4-0 victory against Thailand and a 3-0 triumph over Uzbekistan. 

That's 14 unanswered goals in four matches, which will be a genuine concern for a Japan side who were torn apart by Chile in their Copa America opener.

There is little doubt that Uruguay have a far superior squad to Japan. The Samurai Blue, one of the two guest teams at the 2019 tournament with Qatar, will surely look to restrict the damage on Thursday.

Uruguay have long had a fantastic spine to their team. Jose Gimenez and Diego Godin are arguably the best centre-back pairing in the tournament, and the same could be said for the strike partnership of Edinson Cavani and Luis Suarez.

In central midfield, manager Oscar Tabarez started with Juventus' Rodrigo Bentancur and Inter Milan's Matias Vecino against Ecuador, another strong pairing.

Unfortunately for Uruguay, Vecino has been ruled out for the rest of the tournament because of injury.

But they have excellent cover in the shape of Arsenal's Lucas Torreira and Real Madrid's Federico Valverde:

Japan cannot boast anything like that kind of strength in depth, especially given they have put out a young squad for the tournament as they look ahead to the Tokyo Olympics next summer—18 out of their squad of 23 are 22 or younger.

They came into the tournament on the back of a three-match unbeaten run in which they conceded no goals.

Their reputation for being tight at the back was left in tatters by Chile, though, and Cavani and Suarez will likely be relishing taking them on.

At the other end of the pitch, it is difficult to see where any goals will come from outside of former Leicester City forward Shinji Okazaki, and Japan could be in for a chastening 90 minutes in Porto Alegre.