Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Argentina beat Paraguay in friendly match

Argentina beat Paraguay 4-2 in a friendly match at the Bicentenario stadium in Resistencia, Chaco province. Both teams fielded players of their local leagues. Striker Gabriel Hauche, twice,  Federico Fernández and Enzo Pérez scored for Argentina, while Pablo Zeballos and Elvis Mareco scored for Paraguay.

Argentina and Paraguay have met 91 times with Argentina winning 49 times and Paraguay 16 times. But Argentina’s last success was 17 years ago — a 2-1 victory at Rosario Central’s stadium.

Argentina has Colombia, Bolivia and Costa Rica as group rivals in the Copa América, while Paraguay plays Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador. The top two of each of three groups will qualify for the quarterfinals automatically together with two third-placed teams with the best records.

Argentina’s probable starting line-up for today is Juan Pablo Carizzo, Federico Fernández, Lisandro López, Iván Pillud, Luciano Monzón, Fabián Rinaudo, Diego Valeri, Cristian Chávez, Enzo Pérez, Gabriel Hauche and Lucas Viatri.

Argentina has further warmup matches scheduled against Nigeria and Poland, but with a team of Argentine players with European clubs, while the last match will be played at the River Plate stadium against Albania with the likely Copa América squad.