Quiet at the World Cup, Bobadilla awaits Paraguay's likely progress | OneFootball

São Paulo’s only representative in this World Cup, defensive midfielder Bobadilla is not having a great tournament for Paraguay. He took part in his national team’s first three matches so far, but without standing out and ended up losing his place in the starting lineup.

His debut was one to forget. In the 4-1 thrashing by the host nation, the United States, it was Bobadilla himself who opened the scoring — but for the wrong side. The São Paulo player was unfortunate and ended up scoring an own goal, being substituted at halftime.

In the following round came a heroic 1-0 win over Turkey despite being a man down after a sending-off. Boba started on the bench and came on in the second half to strengthen the defensive midfield. Despite Paraguay’s positive result, the midfielder once again did not stand out.

Finally, in the match that may have sealed Paraguay’s qualification for the next round, Bobadilla came on only for the final minutes of the 0-0 draw with Australia.

Paraguay finished this first stage with four points, in 3rd place in Group D, behind the United States (6) and Australia (4). Turkey ended with three points and has been eliminated from the World Cup.

Despite earning 4 points, Paraguay still has to wait for all the other teams to play to find out whether it will actually finish among the eight best third-placed teams at this stage.

At the moment, Paraguay is the 4th-best third-placed team and its spot is practically guaranteed. However, an incredible combination of results could knock the South Americans out. In this new 48-team World Cup format, Bobadilla’s team will still have to wait until Saturday (27) to celebrate staying in the tournament.

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