Feature
After a 12-year exile from the World Cup, Paraguay return with Gustavo Alfaro preaching the old virtues: intensity, organisation and the stubbornness to grind out results nobody expects. La Albirroja got here by being hard to beat — but the worry is the other end, where goals were scarce in qualifying. The question for the summer is simple: can a team that defends well find enough up front to make the trip count?
Paraguay have squeezed through as one of the best third-placed sides. Not the comfortable route — but a place in the last 32 is a place in the last 32, and the knockouts don't care how you got there.
Julio Enciso
The creative spark Paraguay lean on — much of the attacking burden, for better or worse, rests on his boots.
Gustavo Alfaro
The coach who rebuilt the side around 'Paraguayan DNA' and dragged them back to the World Cup stage.
Age profile
Club homes
Palmeiras3
Atlanta United FC
Al Ain1
Atletico-MG1
Brighton1
Cerro Porteno1+16 more clubs
23 Other · 3 Brasileirão
Experience
The most-capped head in the squad — Santos.
Who's getting on the scoresheet.
Sunderland · 29
