Our prediction for this match:
Estadio Monumental will be the centre of attention when Peru and Paraguay lock horns in a friendly on Saturday morning. Peru have been struggling in the World Cup qualifiers, with the team sitting in the ultimate place in the standings, but back-to-back wins over Nicaragua and Dominican Republic undisputedly helped them regain a much-needed confidence. Veteran Paolo Guerrero once again made the cut, as well as Celta Vigo man Renato Tapia and Feyenoord defender Marcos Lopez.
La Albirroja, on the other hand, aim to recover from a 1-0 loss to Colombia. Peru, though, are tough to beat at home and that is the main reason why we are going to bet on draw. As always, a man to watch in the away team will be Newcastle United midfielder Miguel Almiron, who has 53 caps for Paraguay. In their last meeting in a competitive match the two sides played out a goalless draw.
Highlighted Player (Gianluca Lapadula):
![Gianluca Lapadula](https://footballpredictions.com/wp-content/plugins/fp-highlights/imageid/player/43020298.png)
Gianluca Lapadula, also known as Lapagol, due to his goalscoring abilities, was born in Turin and started his career at Juventus youth team, but was released because he wasn’t doing well in his studies. After the departure with Juventus, Lapadula perfected his goalscoring skills in lower Italian leagues and even spent one year in NK Gorica, Slovenia.
During his spell in Ravenna, he managed to finish the season 2012/13 as the top scorer in the group, netting 24 goals in the process. For a long period of time, the 28-year-old was Parma’s player, but he went on loans often, and, after Parma went bankrupt, Lapagol moved to Pescara. With 30 goals in 43 appearances, the striker caught the eye of Serie A giant Milan. He netted his first goal for the Rossoneri only three minutes after he came on as a substitute.
The following season Lapagol became the striker of Genoa. Even though he was called to play for Peru, the Genoa hitman decided to represent Italy, getting his first call to the senior squad in November 2016. However, he never made an official appearance for Italy, since he only played an unofficial friendly against San Marino, when he scored a hat-trick.
Highlighted Team (Paraguay):
![Paraguay](https://footballpredictions.com/wp-content/plugins/fp-highlights/imageid/team/1655.png)
Los Guaranies are the part of CONMEBOL confederation vying for glory at the international scene since 1919 and their debut loss to Argentina 5-1. Paraguay are regular participants at the Copa America winning the tournament on two occasions thus far, most recently in 1979.
They came close to glory in recent editions of the tournament as they fell short in the final of 2011 to Uruguay, while they finished fourth in 2015. The most successful period of the Paraguay national team came under Argentine coach Gerardo Martino, who took Paraguay to the quarter-finals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup for the first time in history. Following the 2010 success, Paraguay failed to qualify for their fourth successive FIFA World Cup finals as they have also missed out on the third consecutive global championship held inside their own continent.
Toluca FC centre back Paulo da Silva is the most capped player of the Paraguay national team, while former Bayern Munich and Manchester City striker Roque Santa Cruz is the team’s top scorer with 32 goals to his name.