{"id":46175,"date":"2026-07-05T01:16:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T01:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/46175\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T01:16:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T01:16:20","slug":"paraguay-exit-world-cup-with-loss-to-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/46175\/","title":{"rendered":"Paraguay exit World Cup with loss to France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paraguay’s 2026 FIFA World Cup<\/a> campaign ended on Saturday in the Round of 16 with a 1-0 loss<\/a> to France at Philadelphia Stadium.<\/p>\n

\n All-out effort<\/p>\n

After stunning Germany<\/a> in the Round of 32, Paraguay fell short of ousting a second straight European powerhouse at the tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They didn’t make it easy for Les Bleus, however, using physicality and defensive smarts to frustrate Mbapp\u00e9 and the rest of France’s star-studded attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ultimately, a VAR-reviewed penalty by former Inter Miami CF<\/a> midfielder Diego G\u00f3mez on D\u00e9sir\u00e9 Dou\u00e9 allowed Mbapp\u00e9 to convert from the spot and send the two-time World Cup champions to a quarterfinal clash with Morocco on Thursday at Boston Stadium.<\/p>\n

\n MLS on the world stage<\/p>\n

For Paraguay, it’s the end of a World Cup that they gradually grew into in their first tournament appearance since 2010.<\/p>\n

After losing their Group D opener, 4-1<\/a>, to the United States<\/a>, La Albirroja went undefeated the rest of the group stage to qualify as a top third-place finisher. They then produced the biggest upset of the knockout stages by defeating Germany in a dramatic penalty-kick shootout.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paraguay had several standout performers at the competition, among them Cubas. The Vancouver midfielder played every minute for Paraguay, earning\u00a0rave reviews<\/a> for his hard-nosed play in the center of the pitch.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mat\u00edas Galarza, who spent the first half of the year on loan with Atlanta United, scored the goal<\/a> that spurred their World Cup turnaround in a\u00a01-0 victory<\/a> over T\u00fcrkiye.<\/p>\n

Alimir\u00f3n was also a key contributor, starting four of five games as one of Paraguay’s figureheads in attack.<\/p>\n

“I, personally, leave with a lot of pride. Proud to represent this country,” Galarza told reporters post-match. “This goes a along way for Paraguay, a country that was not riding a high.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“… We were in it, every single game. I am very proud of my team, of the group, the staff, the coaching staff. Proud to be Paraguayan.”<\/p>\n

NOTE: Jos\u00e9 N\u00fa\u00f1ez contributed to this story from Philadelphia Stadium<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paraguay’s 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign ended on Saturday in the Round of 16 with a 1-0 loss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[30976,5,30978,30981,26089,30979,30980,457],"class_list":["post-46175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-andres-cubas","tag-france","tag-match-reaction","tag-miguel-almiron","tag-paraguay","tag-parvsfra-07-04-2026","tag-sendtonews","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}