Türkiyevs
ParaguayThere are wins you grind out, and then there are wins that feel like they were authored by someone with a very dark sense of humor. Paraguay scored in the second minute, lost a man before halftime, touched the ball for barely a fifth of the game, and still walked out of Levi's Stadium with a 1-0 result that Türkiye will be replaying in their heads for a long time.
Our pre-match read had Türkiye as the favorite at 46% — Paraguay, at 25%, were the longest of the three outcomes. None of that mattered once Julio Enciso found Matías Galarza in the opening moments and Galarza put it away. Two minutes gone, and Paraguay had exactly what they needed and nothing more than that.
The cruelty of it was the timing of everything that followed. Galarza picked up a yellow card in the 4th minute — two minutes after the goal — for what must have been a foul that left the referee with little choice. Paraguay were a booking away from ten men almost before Türkiye had touched the ball in their half.
Almirón Off, the Door Stays Shut
Then, in first-half stoppage time, Miguel Almirón was shown red. ¡Ala gran púchica! — down to ten men, a lead barely forty-three minutes old, and the entire second half still to play against a side that would finish with 78.6% possession, 630 passes at 90% accuracy, and 12 corners.
Türkiye came in waves. Thirty-two shots in total, twelve corners, and sustained pressure that never quite found the right angle. Only five of those shots were on target, which tells you something about the quality of the chances as much as the resistance. Paraguay's goalkeeper made five saves — cabal, that was the difference between a famous result and a footnote.
The numbers, if you want them plainly:
- Türkiye: 78.6% possession, 32 shots, 5 on target, 12 corners, 1 save
- Paraguay: 21.4% possession, 7 shots, 2 on target, 0 corners, 5 saves
Eren Elmali picked up a yellow in the 71st minute as Türkiye's frustration started finding its way into their challenges. Paraguay, by then, were defending with the particular calm of a team that has decided exactly what this game is and has no intention of letting it become anything else.
Seven shots, zero corners, half their passes going astray — and yet Paraguay leave with the three points. El chispudo de Galarza in that second minute, a finish taken before Türkiye could even set their shape, ended up being the only thing that counted.
Türkiye will feel the weight of this one. Thirty-two shots against ten men and nothing to show for it is the kind of evening that raises hard questions about finishing, about decision-making in the final third, about what exactly went wrong. The question now is whether they can regroup in time for what comes next, because this result has left them in a very uncomfortable position in the group. Paraguay, meanwhile, have every right to believe they can go further in this tournament than anyone expected.
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