PARAGUAY QUALIFIED as winners of Group F but coach Gerardo Martino was hardly satisfied yesterday. Martino's side drew 0-0 with New Zealand to qualify comfortably, but Martino said: "We didn't play well. We didn't have mobility and we were very imprecise with our passing. We achieved our goal of qualifying but we must focus on playing better if we want to get through the next round," said Martino.
The Paraguay coach, whose team go through with Slovakia, said his players had played with some fear and nervousness.
"The players on the field were thinking, 'We are good enough to win but if they get us on the break we are out' and that affected their performance," he said.
"In the last 16, you either win or you are out and so the players will start the game thinking in a very different way."
New Zealand coach Ricky Herbert felt his side bowed out of the World Cup with pride.
"I am delighted with what the guys have done. I'll need to pinch myself," he said.
"Tonight was always going to be based on those one or two chances and if we got them then great. It is really great we are talking about beating the likes of Paraguay. That is fantastic. We will not go through another World Cup unbeaten.
"It is only our second time at the World Cup so to come here and completely reverse what we did before (they lost all three matches in 1982) is amazing.
"Can you get any closer to qualifying? A lot of people thought we shouldn't have been here, that we had amateurs in the team that weren't good enough but I think that is dead and buried now."
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