São Paulo’s Bobadilla with Paraguay in easy World Cup 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 there will be a representative from São Paulo in the World Cup, midfielder Bobadilla, who will be competing for the first time in the planet's most important tournament with Paraguay, returning after being absent since 2010 in the world competition.

The Paraguayans were lucky to fall into a relatively easy group, Group D, which has as its top seed 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 a 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 know their opponent for the second World Cup match on June 19. All group matches will be held in the United States.

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

In Paraguay's recovery campaign, there were seven victories, one of them against Brazil, seven draws, and only four losses in 18 games. They scored 14 goals and conceded ten in the qualification.

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

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

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