Paraguay–Taiwan relations as Taiwan's ambassador at the time, and his diplomatic staff, were able to convince the Paraguayans that continuing the relationship with ROC, and thus keeping Taiwan's development assistance and access to Taiwan's markets, would be more advantageous for Paraguay. As the ROC Commercial Attaché at Asunción, Tseng Cheng-te, explained later, "I tried constantly to figure out what we could buy from them. It was very difficult, because they have nothing to offer". Taiwan provided assistance to Paraguay on a number of economic development projects throughout the 1990s, and has extended large loans to Paraguay; as of early 2009, Taiwan's government
History of the Paraguay national football team of 9 European based players, were expected to advance to at least the round of 16 stage of the competition according to the Paraguayan media, however, defender Antolín Alcaraz believed that Paraguay had what was "required to reach the semi-finals" and Nelson Valdez also believed that the current generation was the one to go further than Paraguay had ever been before. Paraguay were drawn into Group F alongside World Champions Italy, Slovakia and New Zealand. Paraguay would face Italy in their opening group stage match and would take a 1–0 lead in the 39th minute thanks to a header from