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La cucaracha: Paraguay's refusal to die could trigger Messi-less World Cup

Jaime Saldarriaga / Reuters

Francisco Arce, Paraguay's manager, knows better than anyone that it's foolish to write off La Albirroja. Speaking after the national team conquered Colombia with an 89th-minute equaliser and a 92nd-minute winner, the colourful tactician said: "To kill us they have to take out our heart." He's probably right. There isn't - or there doesn't appear to be - any other way.

Paraguay was on its deathbed, minutes away from elimination. Colombia was set to be the executioner. Radamel Falcao's chip in the 79th minute had put La Albirroja on the brink of missing out on the 2018 World Cup, needing one goal to stay alive and two goals to have a realistic chance of making it to Russia. A draw would simply serve as life support. It looked like the end of the road.

Then, the unthinkable happened. Oscar Cardozo exploited a mistake by David Ospina, levelling the score. Three minutes later, as Frank Fabra punched the pitch in frustration following a poor cross, Paraguay launched a counterattack via the area where the Colombian left-back should have been. Ospina failed to collect a cross from Derlis Gonzalez, and Antonio Sanabria, a substitute, tapped the ball into the back of the net, resulting in a night of fiestas in the landlocked country.

The standings are fairly deceiving. Paraguay is seventh, and only four national teams from South America qualify automatically for the 2018 World Cup, while whoever finishes fifth must go through an inter-confederation play-off involving a long journey to New Zealand. With one matchday remaining on the continent, La Albirroja is on the outside looking in.

But Paraguay is potentially one victory away from qualifying. La Albirroja could finish as high as third by beating Venezuela on the final matchday, and as low as sixth if Chile and Argentina are both victorious. It depends entirely on what happens elsewhere. For a national team that was inches from death, it's not a bad situation, and a fourth-place or fifth-place finish is the most likely outcome given who's playing who.

It's easy to understand why Paraguay is flying under the radar. La Albirroja is a national team deprived of poster boys. Cardozo, Gonzalez, and Sanabria don't possess the international appeal that can be found in, for example, Argentina's squad. Loitering outside the top four also helped maintain a low profile, as did the surprising resignation of Ramon Diaz in June 2016.

Paraguay, however, deserves respect. Arce, one of the greatest right-backs in La Albirroja's history, is transforming the national team during his second spell as its manager. Chiqui, as he affectionately known, is continuing the work that Diaz carried out while drawing on his own experiences. He alternates between formations, sometimes deploying two strikers and sometimes using one, and is encouraging the type of counterattacking football that led to the winning goal at Estadio Metropolitano Roberto Melendez. Above all, he is injecting Paraguay's squad with a never-say-die attitude.

Paraguay's comeback in Colombia was simply a microcosm of its 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign. Like a cucaracha - a cockroach - La Albirroja refuses to die. Anything less than three points on the final matchday will mark bring an abrupt end to the national team's fight, but victory could secure its place at the 2018 World Cup, at Argentina's expense if La Albieceleste doesn't tally three points in Ecuador.

Nobody - not even Lionel Messi - can rip out Paraguay's heart, and, as South America's national teams approach the finish line, it's entirely possible that the 2018 World Cup will feature the likes of Cardozo, Gonzalez, and Sanabria, and not the Argentinan phenom.

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