Paraguay v Spain

Paraguay take on Spain today for a place in the semi-finals of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and they look to have a tough task progressing.

Paraguay have been rock-solid at the back having conceded just once in the competition, although they have struggled at the other end with just three goals from their four matches.

Paraguay arrive at the quarter-final stage on the back of three straight shut-outs, and a perfect five-for-five record in the penalty shoot-out against Japan when the teams' second-round game was goalless after extra-time.

Manchester City forward Roque Santa Cruz will need to perform if they are to have any chance of qualifying and he seems confident ahead of the match,

"This is more for the people in Paraguay, we're football players, we're used to playing in teams that win every game,"

"Even if we're very pleased and happy that we qualified, we didn't expect to go to penalties, we expected to be far better than we have been playing.

"We have not reached our potential yet, we want to keep improving, play better and keep progressing."

"Spain are a very compact team who has been playing together for a long time, everyone knows they're the favourites,"

"It's going to be a tough game, Spain are very famous for managing the ball very well and the ball possession won't be on our side as it was the last two games.

"But it will be one of those games that we're very used to playing in South America when we play against Brazil or Argentina, so it's not a type of game that we're not used to playing.

"We're full of confidence that we can play a great game. We'll play the same game we usually play and try to get the ball very early, that's something that won't change."

Confident words, but it is doubtful whether they will be able to trouble the Spanish.

Spain disposed of their under-achievers tag two years ago after winning the European Championship and will start as favourites against the South Americans at 1/2.

The teams will battle it out to win the right to play either Germany or Argentina on 7th July in teh semi-final and the Europeans should have no major problems securing their place, despite the defensive record of Paraguay.

Vicente Del Bosque is expected to keep the same starting line-up and had confirmed Liverpool's Fernando Torres will start alongside Barcelona's new signing David Villa.

Villa, who scored Spain's winner against Portugal, is the tournament's joint-leading scorer with four goals so far this summer in South Africa but at 3/1 generally to open the scoring he looks a little short. It could be worth having a little interest on Barcelona man Andreas Iniesta at 10/1 with paddypower.

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Published 03-07-2010

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