The complexities involved in the challenge of Argentina in Asuncion. He imagined this new Paraguay by Gustavo Alfaro as very complicated. And so it was. The world champion did not even take advantage of the advantage of opening a quick match in the World Cup Qualifiers clash. The thing is that the albiceleste started winning, but then they did not find clarity to attack or firmness to defend. The redhead surpassed her in all aspects of the game, hit fair and enjoyed a more than fair victory.
Paraguay confirmed its growth since Alfaro’s arrival. There have already been five games, with three victories (against Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina) and two draws (with Ecuador and Uruguay), with pure solidity, with effort, with cunning, with variations to generate danger.
All rivals for Lautaro in Paraguay-Argentina
Meanwhile, the world champion and leader of the South American Qualifiers begins to raise some questions more than anything in the delicate clashes. As a visitor, before this defeat, they had lost with Colombia and had tied with Venezuela. He has not managed to replace Angel Di María’s flashes. He is lacking more play and generation in the midfield. A wake-up call for Lionel Scaloni.
Argentina approached the match with its stellar formation and a 4-3-3, which included Lionel Messi, Lautaro Martínez and Julián Álvarez (on the left) as an offensive trident, all against a 4-4-2 with very tight lines. that Paraguay proposed, thinking of leaving quickly to exploit the spaces with the speed of Miguel Almirón.
Great goal by Antonio Sanabria
The world champion had the ball. The possession statistic won by a landslide, with almost 80%. However, it was difficult for him to translate that trait into scoring situations. Paraguay knew how to buckle itself with cunning. What’s more, Argentina took the lead quickly from high pressure with a cut and immediate assistance from Enzo Fernández for Lautaro, who controlled and nailed a left foot into a corner. It was not an elaborate construction…
The complexity of the match was reflected in another fact: having much less of the ball, Paraguay created more scoring chances than Argentina. He didn’t deserve to lose when Lautaro scored. And then he tied it quickly with a shocking pirouette by Antonio Sanabria, seconds after Gustavo Gómez shook the crossbar with a tremendous header.
Messi, always well controlled by Paraguay
It was difficult for Messi to influence the game. Paraguay knew how to surround it. His talent was noted in two actions that led to infractions by Omar Alderete, who was cautioned in the first and had to be sent off for a double yellow in the second, but the Brazilian referee Anderson Daronco, a specialist in ‘removing’ matches, chose not to be unfriendly in Guarani territory. If the regulations had applied, Paraguay would have had to finish the first half with one man less.
Furthermore, Alderete, after saving himself from the expulsion he deserved, right at the beginning of the second half, scored the second Paraguayan goal with a solo cross header. Argentina not only had problems attacking but also defending.
Given the lack of ideas, Lionel Scaloni tried to give freshness and imbalance to the attack with the entry of Alejandro Garnacho for the little influential Alexis Mac Allister. And later, near the end, as an area reference he opted for Valentín Castellanos instead of Julián Álvarez who, so focused on the left, did not weigh.
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The point is that throughout the second half Argentina only came with a counterattack in which Rodrigo De Paul was one-on-one and shot into the sky. In addition, there was an outside shot from Messi that deflected off an opponent and passed close and a header from Castellanos that went next to a post. Nothing else. The forms of these actions exhibit the lack of albiceleste lucidity. Paraguay always played the game they wanted and won it very well.
TECHNICAL SHEET
2 – Paraguay: Junior Fernandez; Gustavo Velázquez, Gustavo Gómez, Omar Alderete, Junior Alonso, Andrés Cubas, Damián Bobadilla (m.81, Mathías Villasanti), Diego Gómez (m.72, Ángel Romero), Miguel Almirón (m.89, Alejandro Romero), Julio Enciso (m.81, Ramón Sosa) and Antonio Sanabria (m.72. Isidro Pitta)
1 – Argentina: Emiliano Martínez; Nahuel Molina (m.76, Gonzalo Montiel), Cristian Romero (m.45, Leonardo Balerdi), Nicolás Otamendi, Nicolás Tagliafico, Rodrigo De Paul, Enzo Fernández (m.76, Leandro Paredes), Mac Allister (m.62, Alejandro Garnacho ), Lionel Messi, Julián Álvarez (m.85, Mariano Castellanos) and Lautaro Martínez.
Goals: 0-1, Lautaro Martínez (m. 11); 1-1, Antonio Sanabria (m. 18); 2-1, Omar Alderete (m. 47)
Referee: Brazilian Anderson Daronco sanctioned Omar Alderete, Andrés Cubas and Isidro Pitta. Nicolás Otamendi also saw yellow for Argentina.
Incidents: Match for the eleventh date of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, played at the Defensores del Chaco stadium in Asunción, in front of around 35,000 spectators.
