After pulling off a surprise win over Germany in the previous round Paraguay now face an even more daunting task when they take on France in the World Cup Round of 16 in Philadelphia on Saturday
Paraguay
Paraguay only just made the cut to get into the Round of 32 but they went on to knock Germany out on spot kicks in Boston on Monday. Julio Enciso put them in front just before half time but Germany squared things up early in the second half. Some excellent defending and a controversial VAR decision to chalk off a German “goal” kept the score at 1-1 for the remainder of the game and extra time and Paraguay goalkeeper then emerged as the hero Orlando Gill
Paraguay recovered from a nightmare start to progress from Group D. USA topped that group with 6 points, Australia were runners up on 4 points with Paraguay third, also with 4 points. Turkey with 3 points were eliminated.
Paraguay played put a dour 0-0 draw with Australia in their final group match in San Francisco, a result which suited both nations in terms of moving them up to 4 points and a place in the Round of 32.
Paraguay put themselves in contention for a Round of 32 place with a 1-0 win over Turkey in San Francisco in their second group match. They took the lead through Matias Galarza after just 64 seconds and it was largely backs to the wall for the remainder of the game and especially so after Miguel Almiron was sent off for “covering his mouth” on the stroke of half time.
Paraguay’s opening game against co-hosts USA in Los Angeles was something of a disaster as they crashed to a 4-1 defeat. An own goal from Damian Bobadilla on just 7 minutes had USA off to a flyer and Paraguay were 3-0 down by half time. They pulled a goal back through Mauricio on 73 minutes but conceded again deep into injury time.
France
France have so far looked every inch the outright favourites to win the tournament and most recently they put Sweden away 3-0 in the Round of 32 in New Jersey on Tuesday. Mbappe scored in each half to take his tally to 6 for the tournament with Barcola also on target. Olise grabbed another 2 assist and Dembele (who has scored 4 goals) set up the other.
France were foot perfect in in Group I winning all 3 of their matches to finish 3 points clear of Norway, Senegal were third with 3 points and also made it through and Iraq were the also rans, failing to earn a point.
France opted to stick with pretty much a first choice line up whilst Norway made 10 changes for their final group match and France came out on top with a 4-1 win thanks to a Ousmane Dembele hat trick in 32 first half minutes and Desire Doue added the fourth late on.
Mbappe scored twice as France eased to a 3-0 win over Iraq in their second group match in Philadelphia where Dembele added the third.
In their opening game France were 3-1 winners against Senegal with Mbappe (2) and Barcola the scorers.
The Betting (Regulation time unless stated otherwise)
Paraguay are priced at around 15/1 to win the game with the draw available at 6/1 and France can be backed at around 1 / 5
A game of 3 goals or more is priced at 6/10 and its 6/4 for both teams to score
France -1 on the handicap are 11/20 and France -2 is 14/10
To qualify for the next round by any method of victory Paraguay are 33/4
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The Verdict:
All the attacking talent in this French squad are getting goals or assist and sometimes both and it will take something extraordinary from Paraguay to stop them.
I’ll go with the France multi goal option and 2-3 will be my play
Bets: France multi goal 2-3 at even money with Sportingbet
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Note, odds are subject to change