Paraguay defy odds on night of drama

Don't be entirely fooled by the result. Like the Brazilians the night before, Nigeria coasted through this, their last group match and, unlike the world champions, left half of their first-choice outfield players languishing on the bench.

Still, on the night, Paraguay deserved what they got and while hearts everywhere went out to the Moroccans on Tuesday, there could be little sympathy for Spain or, more comically, Bulgaria, whose manager had had the audacity to warn Bora Milutinovic not to let his players put their feet up just because they were sure of topping the group.

The Nigerians coach did just that anyway and if there is a certain sense of injustice about the outcome in the Spanish camp, they have only themselves to blame. Milutinovic said as much when asked if he thought the Spaniards might be angry about his team selection.

"I don't know to be honest; you will have to ask them. But that is not my concern. We were first in the group, the first team to reach six points and be sure of qualifying, and after that I had only one team to think about: Nigeria, and how best to prepare for the next stage of the competition."

The Paraguayans are a decidedly ordinary side, one that boasts no more than a fine, inspirational goalkeeper and, it seems, a tireless capacity for hard work. Against France on Sunday that seems unlikely to prove anywhere close to enough to see them into the last eight, but then it shouldn't have earned them a draw with Javier Clemente's Spanish team either and it did.

Last night, too, it provided the basis for success, although it was combined with some particularly terrible play in every area of the pitch by the Group D winners. In front of their own goal, Nigeria were sloppy and approaching Jose Luis Chilavert's area they were regularly worse.

They were not helped by the Paraguayan game plan of playing three men up front and everybody else behind the ball but, on the strength of this showing, the Africans would not want to fall behind in any of their games in the knockout stages.

Milutinovic was already talking about getting ready for the quarter-final game in Nantes after last night's game, and a poor Denmark side should certainly not provide an insurmountable obstacle for a Nigerian first XI with a restored will to win.

Some key players will have to return if they are to prosper, though. They simply don't appear to have the depth within their squad to leave players such as Celestine Babayaro, Victor Ikpeba or Jay-Jay Okacha on the sidelines and they need established stars such as Taribo West to produce better than his occasionally bungling display last night.

Admittedly, he wasn't the only one to blame for the first goal, scored after just 45 seconds, when Francisco Arce's curling free from the left was met, unchallenged, by the head of Celso Ayala inside the six-yard box. The word "naive" is bandied around far too much in connection with poor African defending but, if that's the measure then, it looked as though you could have sold these guys the moon as a steady supply of cheese.

Worse was to come. Paraguay's third was the direct result of Peter Rufai's decision to attempt to dribble the ball virtually off his own line. When he finally did develop a sense of urgency about Jose Cardozo's presence, he scrambled the ball some 30 yards out to his left, from where it came straight back to the 27 year-old Necaxa striker, who found the net from eight yards out.

Had Cordozo been something approaching clinical in his finishing he might comfortably have a hat-trick, his worst miss coming 10 minutes earlier when Chilavert's long kick up-field was again bungled by Rufai and Paraguay's frontman hurriedly fired well wide across a goal mouth into which defenders were only beginning to scramble. Ben Ihora also frustrated the South Americans with three goal line clearances.

For a while, though, this had been an interesting contest. Stunned by the loss of such an early goal, the Nigerians picked up the pace of things quickly. Wilson Oruma brought them level after only 11 minutes after a good passing move out of midfield and, ultimately, a rash challenge that effectively set up the side-footed goal.

There then developed a tussle involving the Nigerians attempting to break down a densely packed Paraguayan defence with their fluid passing and quick movement while attempting not to get caught on the counterattack. His own players' attempts to deal with this pattern of play frequently moved Chilavert to do the rounds of his defenders punching chests and screaming encouragement but it was he who had to do much of the tough stuff anyway, making two fine saves in the minute or so after the equaliser and repeatedly setting up his side's spurts forward with remarkably accurate long balls for the three men up front.

Once Miguel Benitez had restored his side's advantage in the 59th minute with a cracking shot that Rufai got a hand to but simply couldn't keep out, the captain played a more calming role. But even his surprise showed through at the final whistle.

Now the tournament's most popular goalkeeper has the chance to become the leader of its most unpopular team.