The Venezuelan soccer team suffered a painful 2-1 defeat against Paraguay this Tuesday, in a duel valid for matchday 10 of the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup in Mexico, the United States and Canada.
Those led by Argentine Fernando “Bocha” Batista started winning the duel, played at the Defensores del Chaco stadium in Asunción, with a great goal from right back Jon Aramburu.
However, the Guaraníes came back in the second half, in a match that was marked by the irregular judgment of the main referee Piero Maza, as well as by the lack of attack and the defensive disorder of the Venezuelan team.
Attitude
During the first half, Venezuela prevailed with attitude against a Paraguay that constantly besieged the goal defended by Rafael Romo and that had certain freedoms in the physical game.
On several occasions the Guaraní team was seen going hard in the duels and the main referee Piero Maza let the play continue. The opposite was true when it was the vinotintos who were going to the clash and an example of this is that he gave them up to three yellow cards (plus one for technical director Batista), while he only showed the locals one.
Even so, the national eleven managed to create a play in which Yeferson Soteldo played from the center to the right with Jon Aramburu and he traveled about 15 meters until he reached the edge of the area, where he took a right foot that meant the 0- 1 in favor of Venezuela at minute 25.
From then on the dynamics of La Albirroja were maintained, seeking to tie. In a corner kick play, Nahuel Ferraresi grabbed Guarani defender Gustavo Gómez by the shirt and the head judge gave a penalty at 41′.
Julio Enciso was in charge of executing from the 12 steps, but Romo saved the shot to keep the actions 0-1 in favor of the visitor.
Paraguayan bath
In the second 45 minutes, La Vinotinto finally gave up the spotlight to Paraguay, who took advantage of it very well to come back and win.
The local coach, Gustavo Alfaro, immediately brought in forwards Ramón Sosa and Antonio Sanabria, who ended up being key in the match.
At 59′ the equalizing goal came through Sanabria, after a pass from Junior Alonso. In this play, the Paraguayans doubled the right back Aramburu and Darwin Machís failed in the relay, which allowed them to take the center for the Torino attacker from Italy.
The locals continued to stalk the vinotinto goal and completely assumed the lead role in the clash with some complicity from the Chilean referee Maza.
Batista tried to make a change with the entry of Jhonder Cádiz instead of Jefferson Savarino, but the modification did not have the expected effect because Venezuela showed little in attack and the few opportunities it had were not taken advantage of.
Around the 70th minute, Aramburu tried to overwhelm the Venezuelan strikers, but he was intercepted and Paraguay immediately put together a counterattack in which Darwin Machís was permissive in marking on the right. The play continued with a series of defensive errors from the maroon eleven and finally the ball was served to Sanabria to make it 2-1 with a header.
Then the Guaraní troops closed in defense against a Venezuelan team that, despite having an offensive approach from the start, showed little from three quarters of the field onwards.
Classification
Now Venezuela remains with 11 points and is eighth in the table, so it is no longer in the World Cup qualifying positions.
Bolivia occupies seventh place (repechage) with 12 units and Paraguay rose to sixth place with 13.
La Vinotinto’s next challenges will be against Brazil in Maturín on November 14 and against Chile in Santiago on the 19th of the same month. There those led by Batista will be obliged to add at least four points out of six to stay in the fight.
Barcelona / Javier A. Guaipo
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