Paraguay Advance After Penalty Shoot-out
90 minutes of regular time and 30 minutes of extra-time did not see a single goal from Paraguay and Japan.
Japan seemed to be sent on with an attitude of playing safely. At this stage of the tournament you should be going after a win. With such a negative attitude it came as no surprise that Japan did not score.
In the end it came down to a penalty shoot-out. Komano will be the unfortunate one known as the player that failed under the immense pressure of a shoot-out. His attempt disappeared over the goal after clipping the cross bar.
Oscar Cardozo calmly rolled home the winning goal to give the South Americans a 5-3 win and a berth in the quarter-finals at the FIFA World Cup where they will play Spain.
Japan can feel some satisfaction knowing that they won twice on foreign soil, something they had never done. They also got out of the group stage for the first time when playing away from home. The sad fact is that they could have defeated Paraguay if they attacked more.
For Paraguay the dream lives on and they now find themselves in the quarter finals at the World Cup.
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