Paraguay edge past Japan in penalty shootout

Komano hitting the bar

For the first time, Paraguay have made it to the quarter finals of the World Cup, a historic occasion for the South American team. In fact, all of the South American teams have really shined this World Cup, and even though some won't be in the quarter-finals, the tournament is still being dominated by them.

Paraguay - Japan

A tight and cagey match, if there was one game in the round of 16 that was going to go to penalties, I would've picked this one because of the equality in skill of the two teams. The first half had few chances, Matsui hit the bar from 25 yards out, and Santa Cruz had a good chance go wide from in front of net, but there was nothing too memorable.

Cardozo celebrating his final penalty kick

The second half was something to forget, no memorable chances as both teams didn't want to risk conceding and so they went into 30 minutes of extra time. In extra time Paraguay came closest to the goal but there was some brave goal-keeping which pushed the game to penalty kicks.

There was only one miss in the shootout and it was Yuichi Komano who had his shot go too high and hit the bar. Nobody else missed and Cardozo scored the last penalty for Paraguay to let them go through to the quarter-finals and meet either Spain or Portugal.