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<\/p>\nWith the Socceroos set to play their final Group D match in Santa Clara against Paraguay, Socceroos legend Mark Schwarzer and Scott McDonald have handed in their starting squad predictions. <\/p>\n
Speaking on Stan Sport\u2019s Added Time, Schwarzer predicted that if head coach Tony Popovic compiled a team similar to the squad for the Socceroos victory against T\u00fcrkiye, Australia\u2019s pace would \u201cfrighten\u201d Paraguay into defeat. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt really depends on who (Popovic) picks, right? So like if he picks Irankunda and Tuure up front, if he goes back to (a) similar team that he played against T\u00fcrkiye, I\u2019m confident enough to say…two one to Australia,\u201d said Schwarzer. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf the right players are on the pitch, and give us every opportunity to play out, to hold the ball up and to really frighten the life out of Paraguay with a pace that we have in our team.\u201d <\/p>\n
Schwarzer also doubled down on his blunt call to replace Patrick Beach with captain Mat Ryan in goal for the crucial game. <\/p>\n
\u201cReferring back to the goalkeeping position, I\u2019ve said it over the last couple of days, Patrick Beach has done a fantastic job and I just feel in those big games, in a big game now, we want someone in there that has real experience, real composure,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cNot that Patrick Beach hasn\u2019t shown composure, but I just feel that Matty\u2019s gonna be a little bit better for this occasion. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think his (Ryan\u2019s) communication amongst the players … looks better. And I feel that it\u2019ll be better suited for the way we want to play against Paraguay.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDonald agreed with the former Socceroos goalkeeper, saying, \u201cBeach has done unbelievably well, but I think he\u2019s your captain, he\u2019d your leader. He should play in the biggest game of the World Cup, thus far.\u201d <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jason Geria in the Socceroos\u2019 first game against Turkey.\u00a0Darryl Dyck\/The Canadian Press via AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Socceroos set to play their final Group D match in Santa Clara against Paraguay, Socceroos legend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":760056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-760055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/760056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}