The World Champions Italy settled with a draw against Paraguay for the opening match of Group F in the World Cup 2010 South Africa. The game took place in Cape Town, and with the security personnel of Green Point stadium on strike, as a sign of support to their fellow employees that went head to head with South African police protesting for low salaries and owed money.
The first 20 minutes of the match between Italy and Paraguay were similar to most World Cup 2010 games so far: boring, slow, without any creativity or goal chances. The game begun with Italy having the ball possession, while Paraguay was being careful in the defence and waiting for an opportunity to counter attack. The first actual shot in the game came 20 minutes after the start, with Riccardo Montolivo for Italy sending the ball outside. Aureliano Torres woke up Gianluigi Buffon a minute later with a powerful shot that also went slightly outside.
And when everything in the game was going towards a goalless half time draw, Paraguay scored a goal in pretty much their first classic chance of the match: Aureliano Torres sent the corner in the heart of the Italian defence, and Antolín Alcaraz won the header from both De Rossi and Cannavaro sending the ball inside the net.
In the second half Italy came in determined to turn the game, pressuring Paraguay everywhere on the field. The goal finally came in 63′ again with a corner from Simone Pepe that ended up to Daniele De Rossi that had no problem scoring the equaliser. The Italians continued with the same pressure but without result, so the two teams shared goals and points.
Antolín Alcaraz was the MVP of the game, scoring the only goal for Paraguay while playing great defence for his national team. Italian coach Marcello Lippi was definitely disappointed after the end of the match, saying that “we could have left with the three points, we put all weight on the offence playing against a team that was defending for 90 minutes.”
