Miguel Almiron tops excellent performance with quality goal in World Cup qualification group victory | OneFootball

Miguel Almiron was in international action on Thursday night.

The South American World Cup qualification group games almost completed and Paraguay only playing for pride now, some time ago losing any realistic chance of qualifying for Qatar.

Since a 2-1 win over Venezuela and only two defeats in their opening nine group matches, Miguel Almiron and his international teammates had lost five of their last seven games and drawn the other two, ahead of Thursday night’s match.

A rare bit of positivity for Paraguay and Miguel Almiron, despite being second bottom of the (10 team) group, they beat third top Ecuador 3-1.

An excellent performance from Miguel Almiron seeing him crown his display with some excellent footwork on the edge of the box and a sweet left foot finish into the bottom corner (watch that goal in the highlights below, go to 4.55 in the video) for Paraguay’s third goal. The match was played in shocking conditions with torrential rain but I don’t think that was the cause of Almiron’s less than enthusiastic goal celebrations, which you can view in these video highlights. No idea what that is all about.

Just before that goal in these highlights, worth also checking out where I think Newcastle stand their best chance of getting something better out of Miguel Almiron. If you go to 4.20 in the highlights, you will see Paraguay pressing high up the pitch with numbers and Almiron catching an opposition defender in possession, setting up a chance for a teammate who hit the bar but should have really scored and got the Newcastle player an assist as well as his goal that followed.

That result leaves the South American qualifying table looking like this:

The top four automatically qualify for Qatar and the fifth go into a play-off, at least now Paraguay shouldn’t have the embarrassment of finishing rock bottom.

It is now almost 14 months since Miguel Almiron last scored for Newcastle United, ironically getting two in the 3-2 win over Southampton on 6 February 2021. Since then he has now scored twice for Paraguay in the last two games they have won, 2-1 against Venezuela back in September 2021 and last night against Ecuador.

Newcastle United players on international duty in March 2022

Monday 21 March

New Zealand 4 Fiji 0 World Cup qualifier (played at neutral venue in Qatar)

Chris Wood scored twice and went on to 30 goals for his country, making him New Zealand’s top goalscorer ever.

Thursday 24 March

New Zealand 7 New Caledonia 1 World Cup qualifier (played at neutral venue in Qatar)

The Kiwis brought the Newcastle United January signing on in the 71st minute and he still scored two goals, which makes it eight goals for Chris Wood in his last six appearances for New Zealand. Those goals in the 7-1 demolition job on New Caledonia, means that Chris Wood is now on 32 goals for New Zealand, three clear of the next highest in the national team’s history.

Brazil 4 Chile 0 World Cup qualifier

Coming off the bench after 82 minutes when replacing Manchester United’s Fred and the score at 3-0, Bruno Guimaraes was swiftly into the thick of the action.

In the first minute of injury time the Newcastle midfielder threaded a pass through to Richarlison and the Everton striker supplied an excellent left foot finish to make it 4-0. Brazil are unbeaten in the group, long since qualified for Qatar and now all but certain to finish top of the group ahead of Argentina.

Paraguay 3 Ecuador 1 World Cup qualifier

After a dismal run of five defeats and two draws in their last seven South American group qualifiers, a rare bit of positivity for Paraguay and Miguel Almiron.

With chances of qualifying for Qatar long gone, second bottom of the (10 team) group Paraguay beat third top Ecuador 3-1.

An excellent performance from Miguel Almiron seeing him crown his display with some excellent footwork on the edge of the box and a sweet left foot finish into the bottom corner.

Sweden v Czech Republic (Emil Krafth) World Cup qualifier

Liberia v Benin (Mo Sangare) Friendly (Played in neutral venue in Antalya, Turkey)

Friday 25 March

Norway v Slovakia (Martin Dubravka) Friendly

Saturday 26 March

England v Switzerland (Fabian Schar) Friendly

Sunday 27 March

Liberia v Sierra Leone (Mo Sangare) Friendly (Played in neutral venue in Antalya, Turkey)

Tuesday 29 March

Peru v Paraguay (Miguel Almiron) World Cup qualification group match (In UK time the kick-off is 12.30am on Wednesday 30 March)

Bolivia v Brazil (Bruno Guimaraes) World Cup qualification group match (In UK time the kick-off is 12.30am on Wednesday 30 March)

Finland v Slovakia (Martin Dubravka) Friendly (Played in neutral venue in Murcia, Spain)