{"id":715133,"date":"2026-06-20T07:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T07:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/715133\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T07:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T07:53:10","slug":"ten-man-paraguay-hang-on-to-seal-world-cup-win-and-send-turkey-to-early-exit-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/715133\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten-man Paraguay hang on to seal World Cup win and send Turkey to early exit | World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ten-man Paraguay<\/a> scored the fastest goal of the World \u2060Cup so far to beat a hapless Turkey 1-0 in a dramatic Group D match, breathing life into their campaign \u2060and condemning their opponents \u2060to a miserable \u200bearly exit.<\/p>\n

Fired up after their humiliating 4-1 opening match defeat by the USA, Paraguay went ahead 64 seconds in when \u2060Mat\u00edas \u2060Galarza rifled in a long-range shot, then clung on for the entire game against a tide of Turkish attacks.<\/p>\n

Spurred on to the sound of \u2060beating drums in the San Francisco Bay Area, Paraguay defended resolutely to withstand the Turkish \u200bonslaught and played the second half with \u200c10 men, after Miguel Almir\u00f3n was sent off for remarks made to Mert Muldur with his hand covering his \u200cmouth.<\/p>\n

The win by the South Americans means the United States were confirmed as Group D winners after their earlier 2-0 victory over Australia in Seattle. The Socceroos and Paraguay will play for second place in their match next week.<\/p>\n

Turkey dominated the match, with 79% possession at one point but they paid the heaviest of prices for their atrocious finishing, logging 32 attempts but no goals in almost a carbon copy of their high-shooting \u200copening match loss to Australia.<\/p>\n

Miguel Almir\u00f3n after he was sent off. Photograph: Richard Heathcote\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Turkey were inventive and always threatening but fell apart in front of goal, with a slew of chances for Juventus \u200bforward Kenan Yildiz and Real Madrid\u2019s Arda Guler, but Paraguay defended solidly and looked dangerous on the break in their few chances.<\/p>\n

Paraguay, known as \u201cLa Albirroja\u201c, last played in the World Cup<\/a> in 2010, where they were eliminated by eventual champions Spain in the quarter-final in their best-ever run \u2060in the tournament.<\/p>\n

Goalscorer Galarza said it was one of the best days \u200bof his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe showed \u200bour quality fighting spirits even with \u200bone player down. God wanted this to happen for Paraguay more than \u200bever before,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s \u200ccoach Vincenzo Montella \u200bsaid his players \u200bfought to stay in the tournament and it was an outcome everyone had to accept.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sad but I\u2019m also very proud of my players. They gave everything right up until the final whistle. That\u2019s what football\u2019s like,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ten-man Paraguay scored the fastest goal of the World \u2060Cup so far to beat a hapless Turkey 1-0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-715133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}