Romel Quinonez remains confident of qualifying for the World Cup 2018

Bolivia goalkeeper Romel Quinonez remains confident of qualifying for the World Cup 2018 despite making a poor start to the campaign.

Regarded as one of the minnows in South American football, Bolivia have never been favourites to qualify for a major tournament like the World Cup. However, there has been a seismic shift in the football landscape in this region since 2015.Baldivieso took charge of the national team during this period and he has placed his faith on the youngsters in this region. So far, the national team has managed only one win in the qualification campaign.

The solitary victory came against Venezuela, who are not themselves regarded as a strong team. Losses against Uruguay, Ecuador, and Paraguay mean that the nation is already at a grave disadvantage as far as qualifying is concerned. Still,Quinonez has not lost hope and he says that the campaign can be revived with a win against Colombia in the upcoming game. Like Bolivia, Colombia have been on a poor run of form and have not managed to take three points since the win over Peru in the opening match. Bolivia have to take something out of the game against Colombia since their next match will be against Argentina and not much is expected out of this game.

"We know that we haven't made a good start to qualifying, it wasn't the one we'd hoped for.We've made mistakes, for example against Uruguay [in a 2-0 home defeat], and we all know how good a side they are. We need to make the most of home advantage, everyone knows that.The manager has been bringing in new faces, calling up young players from the Bolivian football scene.There's a process going on that, in my opinion, should have been done before,” said Quinonez.