Then, the third best team in the Qualifiers will take the field, the one that has just given Brazil a resounding defeat, the one that has its most inspired figure in Luis Díaz.
That is ‘the bull’ that awaits Paraguay, which comes from a change of coach and appears in the seventh place in the table, 4 points behind Colombia, its rival this Tuesday (6:00 pm). If we add that the national team has gone almost three decades without losing in Asunción, it is as if the pressure was on the Paraguayans.
Yes, it looks like a ‘tiger fight against a tied donkey’, as the saying goes, but there is nothing of that in the Qualifiers. In fact, to trust, even when there are six and a half teams (with the playoffs) to the 2026 World Cup, would already be going in at a loss.
That is why we must take note, without triumphalist excesses, of what Paraguay has to complicate. And that is, as always, its defensive strength: it is a team that conceded only two goals in these Qualifiers, one from Nicolás Otamendi with Argentina (volley) and one more from Venezuela, from a penalty.
It is an impeccable team in its brand, which also returns to the Defensores del Chaco stadium, after having played the first two dates in Ciudad del Este, where it tied with Peru and defeated Bolivia.
We know the main problem well in Colombia: it costs Paraguayans a hell of a lot to score a goal, in fact they only scored one in the Qualifiers, that of Antonio Sanabria, in the victory (1-0) against Bolivia. The anemia caused even coach Garnero (he replaced Barros Schelotto) to appeal to Óscar ‘Tacuara’ Cardozo, 40, with the hope of solving it.
Without Miguel Almirón, the Newcastle man who is a great figure but will not be against Colombia due to injury, the drought threatens to extend. But be careful, it hits them once and they wash off the salt and maybe they even score. It cannot be Colombia that gives life to that rival. Today in the Qualifiers everyone can be potential executioners.