Venue: Italy v Paraguay in Cape Town – World Cup Group F Match

Date Monday, June 14, 2010
Match Time: 8.30pm (local)
Italy v Paraguay Odds: Italy win 5/6; draw 2/1; Paraguay win 3/1.
Key players – Italy: Fabio Cannavarro, Alberto Gilardino, Gianluigi Buffon, Gianluca Zambrotta. Paraguay: Roque Santa Cruz, Salvador Cabanas.
Tickets: TBA
Italy v Paraguay Live Streaming

Predictions:
Frank Finnegan: Paraguay is a very dangerous squad in this edition of the World Cup, and will battle the Italians tooth and nail, and will certainly provide them with their toughest test in this group. The Italians will take a first half lead and then hunker down defensively in true, boring Azzuri style, but Paraguay will find a way to equalize. But, likely distracted by a racy Italian Dolce & Gabbana racer board, or perhaps by the impossibly attractive Italians themselves, will surrender a late goal to give the Italians a 2-1 victory, and sending me into a muttering, cursing, head-shaking rage and depression. Seriously, this team’s members are prettier than most women, and it’s disconcerting. It is not a particularly strong Italian side, but they will win this group, which is one of the weakest in the competition.

Peter Howard: It’s a bad sign when your World Cup year begins with your nation’s top scorer in qualifying being shot in the head, but that’s what happened to Paraguay and striker Salvador Cabanas. He survived, but is not gong to be playing in South Africa. These are two of the most veteran teams in the competition. Look for Italy to go up early, and Paraguay to fight like hell. Selfishly as an American, I want to pick against Giuseppe Rossi because I’d rather him be playing for us, so I’m going to suggest a 2-2 draw between Italy and Paraguay.

Greg Neville: Wins over Brazil and Argentina in qualifying suggest the South Americans will give the defending champion Italians plenty of trouble. Paraguay will certainly be up for the challenge but the four-time Cup champions – who haven’t missed the knockout stage since 1974 – know how to get through these danger matches. This match will provide the Italians with a good taste of South American football should they go deep in the tournament but I project they’ll go out in the QF without playing another SA team. That said, the Italians could still rack up the most clean sheets of the tournament. The Azzurri win 1-0.

Alex Michaels: This is a very tricky opener for the Italians to begin the defence of their title. Paraguay had an impressive qualifying campaign, finishing in third place behind Brazil and Chile in South America, with victory over Argentina to book their tickets. The Italians are in a similar position to Germany in that they have an ageing squad and likewise cannot rely on reputation alone. I’m going for a shock 1-0 win to Paraguay.

Other June 14 matches:
World Cup Group E match: Netherlands v Denmark in Johannesburg at 1.30pm.
Algeria v Slovenia Odds: Netherlands win 4/6; draw 23/10; Denmark win 7/2.
World Cup Group E match: Japan v Cameroon in Bloemfontein at 4pm.
Serbia v Ghana Odds: Japan win 11/5; draw 2/1; Cameroon win 11/10.