Defending champion Italy starts their World Cup 2010 mission against Paraguay on 14 June at the Cape Town Stadium in Cape Town. Italy and Paraguay are favorites in Group F where New Zealand and Slovakia are the two other teams.
Time
The match starts at 18:30 GMT (20:30 local time). According to Italy time, the match begins at 20:30, while fans in Paraguay can watch the match from 14:30. In USA, the match kicks off in New York time at 14:30 and in California time at 11:30.
Live Score
To get the live score of the match, visit the following link:
http://www.goalzz.com/main.aspx?region=-12&team=208&team2=364
Ahead of the match, Paraguay would be inspired by their World Cup qualifying performances as they finished third to clinch a place in the World Cup finals. Their biggest hope lies in their forward line up that features Manchester City striker Roque Santa Cruz and Benfica’s Óscar Cardozo who scored 36 goals and was the highest scorer of Portuguese league last season.
Italy is missing their key playmaker Andrea Pirlo who is currently recovering from calf injury. However, the current champions have a very strong defense in the presence of Fabio Cannavaro and Gianluca Zambrotta. So, it would be interesting to see how Italian defense restricts Paraguayan strikers. Both Santa Cruz and Cardozo are strong aerially thanks to their heights. So, they pose enough threat for Italian defense.
Italy coach Marcelo Lippi would like to emulate the 2006 success this year knowing that it is going to be his last tournament with Italy. However, there are a number of reasons he could be worried ahead of the opening fixture.
First of all, Italy’s recent form is poor as they lost to Mexico and drew with Switzerland in their two friendly affairs recently. Secondly, Italy may have to struggle to take the control of the midfield in the absence of Pirlo. So, it seems to be a clash between Italy’s defense and Paraguay’s attack.
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