BLOEMFONTEIN // Despite opening their World Cup campaigns with matching results, Paraguay and Slovakia will enter today's Group F showdown in Bloemfontein with very different feelings. Paraguay are sure to be buoyed by their 1-1 draw with Italy, the champions, in Cape Town, but Slovakia conceded a deflating 93rd-minute equaliser to unfancied New Zealand in a 1-1 draw in Rustenburg. Group F is the tightest at the tournament, with all four teams showing exactly the same records and today's games give each country another chance to emerge as contenders for the knockout stage.
After holding Italy, Paraguay feel confident enough to talk of a first ever appearance in the quarter-finals. "We want to go at least to the quarter-finals because in Paraguayan history it's never been done," Roque Santa Cruz, the striker, said. Santa Cruz, the Manchester City forward, is also positive about his own fitness after struggling with injury in the run-up to the tournament and only playing the final 22 minutes against Italy.
"I hope I'll be fully fit for the Slovakia match," the 28-year-old said. Slovakia are playing their first major tournament since the former Czechoslovakia divided in 1993 and are trying to shake off the bitter disappointment of allowing a 1-0 lead over the New Zealanders to slip in the dying moments at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium. "Against New Zealand, it was a game with a lot of fouls," Vladimir Weiss, the coach, said yesterday.
"Tomorrow we will run more. Physically it will be a more difficult game, the pace will be quicker, the movement will be quicker." Weiss's son, Vladimir junior, said the Slovaks had learned a harsh lesson against New Zealand. "Winning would have been the perfect start," the 20-year-old winger said, "but conceding a goal in the last minute has changed everything. That was our big debut in the World Cup ... and we'll do our level best to prevent the same thing from happening again."
Gerardo Martino, the Argentine coach, said his Paraguay team can improve on their impressive opening performance, which gave his men "a lot of confidence". "We attach great importance to what we have done [against Italy]," Martino said. "We need to improve on our possession and how we move the ball."
* AP
