Paraguay have completely controlled Slovakia in their Group F match in Bloemfontein.
Group FSlovakia: 0 Paraguay: 2 (Enrique Vera 27', Cristian Riveros 86')
Venue: Free State Stadium - Bloemfontein Crowd: 26,643 Referee: Eddy Maillet (SEY) Yellow cards:SVK - Jan Durica 42', Stanislav Sestak 47', Vladimir Weiss 84' PAR - Enrique Vera 45'
Slovakia showed little in the way of attacking movement in the opening 25 minutes as Paraguay made all the running and it paid off in the 27th minute when Lucas Barrios played a neat ball into the path of Enrique Vera, who despite being under pressure, managed to use the outside of his right boot to swerve his shot past Jan Mucha and into the back of the net to make it 1-0.
There was little other action in regards to serious goalscoring chances in the remainder of the first 45 minutes and the scoreline stayed at 1-0 to Paraguay at the break.
The Slovakians still struggled to get into the game in the early stages of the second half but managed to produce some attacking threat as they chased an equaliser but Paraguay were snuffing out any chances and were looking as comfortable as they could be with a one-goal advantage.
It was just a matter of time until Paraguay had secured all three points as Slovakia were unable to get a shot on target and Gerardo Martino's men managed to grab a second when Paulo da Silva teed up Cristian Riveros who emphatically powered his shot past a helpless Mucha with just four minutes remaining to ensure the victory.
Starting Line-Ups
SVK Jan Mucha (gk), Peter Pekarik, Martin Skrtel, Zdeno Strba, Vladimir Weiss, Jan Kozak, Stanislav Sestak (Holosko 70'), Robert Vittek, Jan Durica, Marek Hamsik, Kornel Salata (Stoch 83')
Subs - Filip Holosko (70'), Miroslav Stoch (83')
PAR Justo Villar (gk), Claudio Morel, Carlos Bonet, Roque Santa Cruz, Enrique Vera (Barreto 88'), Paulo da Silva, Victor Caceres, Cristian Riveros, Nelson Valdez (Torres 68'), Lucas Barrios (Cardozo 82'), Antolin Alcaraz
Subs - Aureliano Torres (68'), Oscar Cardozo (82'), Edgar Barreto (88')
