Topics: Paraguay, Chile, World Cup Qualifiers
Paraguay will try and go back to winning ways when they host Chile with a sixth consecutive home win on Saturday, June 6.

La Albirroja suffered a rare defeat to Uruguay followed by a draw against Ecuador which let Brazil close the gap to only three points at the top of the table.

However, the Paraguayans’ confidence ahead of the clash should be boosted after Edgar Benitez’s heroic injury-time equalizer against Ecuador in their last qualifier gave them a share of the points. It perhaps wasn’t the best result, but securing a draw in such a dramatic manner always comes as a relief and almost appears as a victory.

 

But if Paraguay haven’t been able to show up their best form recently, it is also due to playmaker Roque Santa Cruz’s disappearance from the limelight. If made available, the Blackburn Rovers striker will have some points to prove when he features against Chile.

On the other side, Chile are flying high since they went down 1-0 in Ecuador in October 2008. They Chileans recorded a famous 1-0 victory over Argentina to the year 2008 on a good note before continuing on this good track with a 3-1 win in Peru and a good goalless draw at home to Uruguay despite playing with ten men for almost an hour.

Chile have impressed a lot, managing to brush aside a total of four defeats so far by picking up 18 massive points out of six good victories. Chile are just one point behind Brazil and currently three points above the drop zone containing teams like sixth-placed Colombia who have 14 points.

It looks like Chile’s dream of reaching the finals of the World Cup will come into reality. They still need to affront Argentina’s killers Bolivia, five-time World Champions Brazil or even Colombia before the end of the campaign, which explains that there are hurdles to surmount in the road ahead.

Chile were hammered 3-0 at home by rampant Paraguay, but now that the leaders are enduring their lows, can the Chileans keep up their good form by upsetting them?

Chile went missing from the 2002 and 2006 World Cup finals. It is certainly time for them to reach the promise land once again. Winning against Paraguay will let them be closer to achieving this dream.