Bobadilla represents São Paulo for Paraguay in easy group D | OneFootball

The groups for the 2026 World Cup were drawn by FIFA this Friday (5), in Washington (USA), thus defining the initial matchups for the teams already qualified for next year’s World Cup.

And São Paulo will have a representative at the World Cup, midfielder Bobadilla, who will be playing in the planet’s most important tournament for the first time with Paraguay, returning to the global competition after being absent since 2010.

The Paraguayans were lucky to land in an easy group, Group D, whose top seed is one of the host countries, the United States, against whom they will make their World Cup debut on June 12, 2026.

The group also includes Australia, Paraguay’s last opponent in the group stage, on June 25, and one more team yet to be determined from the European playoffs.

Bobadilla’s country is awaiting the outcome of the group that will feature matches between Turkey, Romania, Slovakia, and Kosovo to find out their opponent for the second match of the World Cup, on June 19. All group matches will be held in the United States.

Paraguay returns to the World Cup after clinching the last spot in the South American qualifiers. Despite finishing 6th, the team ended up with the same 28 points as the three teams above: Colombia (3rd), Uruguay (4th), and Brazil (5th). In 2nd place, Ecuador had 29 points.

In Paraguay’s comeback campaign, there were seven wins, one of them against Brazil, seven draws, and only four losses in 18 games. They scored 14 goals and conceded ten during qualification.

Currently ranked 39th in the FIFA rankings, Paraguay has already played in eight editions of the World Cup. Their best campaign was precisely in their last appearance, in 2010, in South Africa.

After finishing first in Group F, eliminating Italy, Paraguay knocked out Japan on penalties in the round of 16 and only fell to future world champions Spain, in a narrow 1-0 defeat.

Someone who was present in that historic campaign 15 years ago is Aldo Bobadilla, the former goalkeeper and father of the Tricolor midfielder. He had also played in the 2006 World Cup, and now will be able to watch his son play in a World Cup for the first time.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.