Our 2026 FIFA World Cup Fantasy team preview continues in Paraguay.
Albirroja haven’t progressed to the final stage since 2010. It was their fourth consecutive appearance since 1998, and they have reached the knockout stages on three occasions.
Under the tutelage of head coach Gustavo Alfaro, they are arguably in the most balanced group, with no heavyweights or small teams. According to bookies’ odds, Paraguay is only the third best country in Group D. But two-thirds of the teams in that position still qualify for the round of 32.
In this country-by-country guide, we’ll look at the best players from each country, review the road to the World Cup, and more.
PARAGUAY SQUAD
Two of the squad’s 26 players are current Premier League players – Diego Gomez ($6.8 million) and Omar Alderete ($4.1 million) – provisional Gustavo Caballero ($4.2 million) was recently loaned to Championship side Portsmouth.
Some of you may remember the defender Fabian Balbuena ($4.0 million), at West Ham United between 2018 and 2021, while the former Nottingham Forest winger Ramon Sosa ($5.3 million) scored one goal in the top division in 2024/25.
Another familiar name is Miguel Almiron ($6.0 million) – now back at Atlanta United – plus former Brighton and Hove Albion forward Julio Enciso ($6.6 million). The 22-year-old is now at Strasbourg, which means we might see him at Chelsea one day…
THE PATH TO QUALIFICATION
In fact, the expanded format of the World Cup makes it difficult to miss out on CONMEBOL. Even Bolivia, which is ranked seventh, got a second chance, through the inter-confederation play-offs.
But it doesn’t look easy when Paraguay only collected five points (and one goal) from the first six meetings. However, after a nine-month break, they impressively recovered to take 23 points from the remaining 12, only losing to Brazil after beating them previously.
The match was not easy – only Ecuador was involved in fewer goals than those 24 – but this was partly due to a solid defense that kept 10 clean sheets, resulting in the second fewest goals (10) and third fewest shots (170).
And, although only Peru and Chile scored less frequently, Alfaro’s team managed to hit the woodwork 10 times.
BIGGEST GOAL THREAT IN QUALIFICATION
*note: xG in the table above is non-penalty
Paraguay deserve credit for being a tough, physical team and with a good work ethic, but not for their goals.
There is nothing more than that Antonio Sanabriafour strikes ($6.5 million). Three of them came as substitutes, and finished with expected goals (xG) (+2.47). Even though Almiron should have scored 2.19 times, not once.
Enciso and Sosa took the most shots (23 times), the former took both penalties (with a 50/50 record).
THE MOST CREATIVE PLAYER
In terms of attempted setups, Diego Gomez is the only player to assist more than once, although Almiron leads the way in terms of key passes (21) and expected assists (xA, 1.34).
Gomez and Almiron had to share a corner kick.
SINCE QUALIFICATION
| Date | Opposition | Competition | Results | Goal scorer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 10, 2025 | v Japan (a) | Friendly | 2-2 | Almiron, D Gomez |
| October 14, 2025 | v South Korea (a) | Friendly | 0-2 | |
| November 15, 2025 | v United States (a) | Friendly | 1-2 | Arce |
| November 18, 2025 | v Mexico (n) | Friendly | 2-1 | Sanabria, Bobadilla |
| March 27, 2026 | v Greek (a) | Friendly | 1-0 | D Gomez |
| March 31, 2026 | v Morocco (n) | Friendly | 1-2 | Caballero |
| June 5, 2026 | v Nicaragua (k) | Friendly | 4-0 | Pena Romero, Almiron, Galarza, Maidana |
The team flew to Asia last October, twice being pegged by Japan, before losing to South Korea.
A month later, they had a mixed time against hosts the United States and Mexico, as both games finished 2-1.
Diego Gomez secured a 1-0 win over Greece in March, but a quick defeat to Morocco meant the South Americans kept just two clean sheets from seven friendlies. Moreover, after conceding multiple goals in just two of 18 qualifying matches, this has happened on the last four occasions.
The final pre-tournament match, against Nicaragua, saw Paraguay complete their preparations well, but the world-ranked nation at 131 was not a good test of what was to come.
Enciso was stretchered off the pitch during the match but Alfaro made no negative comments after the match ended:
“Hopefully it’s nothing serious and just a knock, and we can maintain him and get him back to full fitness.
“He had a double injury: first to his side and then to his lower back, which affected his quadriceps. He was scared and had to come off.” – Gustavo Alfaro, via BBC Sport
The final XI is a good preview of what will happen in Round 1, despite the uncertainty between the posts:
The image above is from BBC Sport
Alejandro ‘Kaku’ Romero (£4.7m) interestingly took – and scored – a penalty in this match ahead of Enciso, Almiron and Sanabria.
WORLD CUP MATCHES
As our color-coded Ticker Fixture shows, these four countries can complete in any order.
Paraguay’s first match was in Los Angeles against a feisty United States. Then, the potential dark horse, Türkiye.
For Fantasy managers, perhaps a slightly ‘better’ opponent is Australia. Those who use the Wildcard in Round 3 essentially get a Free Hit (in Fantasy Premier League terms) and can target Paraguay’s assets at that point.
BEST FANTASY CHOICE
Currently, no Paraguayan player has ownership above 0.4%, meaning they have little to no appeal for due to a boring fixture list and lack of goals.
But on the positive side, they all qualify for the Scout Bonus prize.
Julio Enciso ($6.6 million) is Paraguay’s most talented player. Although he only scored four goals in 44 league games at Brighton, his long-range finisher against Manchester City won multiple ‘Goal of the Season’ awards and was ranked third in that year’s FIFA Puskas Award.
He scored even better on loan at Ipswich Town at the end of 2024/25, before starting the season with 12 goals and nine assists (in all competitions) at Strasbourg.
What increases Enciso’s appeal at the Fantasy World Cup is the possibility of taking penalties, although Kaku – who has not been a regular starter for Paraguay for many years – provided a chance in that attempt against Nicaragua. Enciso is also listed as a midfielder, so he gets extra points for every goal scored.
A spectacular goalscorer rather than a spectacular goalscorer, both of his non-penalty kicks in qualifying came from outside the box:
We’re waiting to hear whether Friday’s injury is serious or not, but with many Fantasy managers not interested in the Paraguayan until Round 3, this gives him three weeks to recover.
Of course there are still Paraguayan players in the Seagulls.
Diego Gomez ($6.8 million) is the person in question. Brighton midfielder Enciso and Miguel Almiron ($6.0 million) is usually part of a floating three playing behind a center forward Antonio Sanabria ($6.5 million).
Cheaper than his midfield counterparts, Almiron should be a proper starter and boast his team’s best during qualifying for non-penalty xG and xA.
However, Gomez will have to take direct free kicks and make a number of eye-catching tackles in qualifying, so he can earn bonus points in various ways (the key pass bonus is another bonus).
For the investment in their tight back line, it’s all a bargain. Three of the first four choice defenders – Omar Alderete ($4.1 million), Junior Alonso ($4.1 million) and long throw specialist Juan Caceres ($3.8 million) – is a bargain. Alderete took the most shots (12) and scored more goals (two) in qualifying than any other Paraguayan defender.
Even cheaper is the goalkeeper Orlando Gill ($3.5 million), who is considered a favorite for the World Cup – but the last friendly pre-tournament start for the veteran Roberto Fernandez ($4.0 million) might be enough to keep the ‘keepers at bay for now.
PakarPBN
A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.
In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.
The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.