FRANCE 98 – Paraguay – P. Carpeggiani: “If Chilavert ever decided to run for President of Paraguay I'd vote for him”

Comments from the Clapiers stadium (near MONTPELLIER)

“We didn’t have good results during the World Cup preparation matches and this made PARAGUAY (Group D) look like an easy team to beat. BULGARIA (Group D) outplayed us at the beginning of the match (12 June), then we changed tactics and that led to our victory. The press thought that we weren’t going to qualify for the round of sixteen.

We have some great players and we’re capable of going further in the competition–it’s my job to see to that.

I’m not going to say anything about Aimé JACQUET’s way of doing things–I don’t have enough information to comment on that. They’ll be playing without Zinedine ZIDANE (10) but that’s the way it goes–nonetheless, they still have a good team. We have to get past FRANCE (Group C) and after that we’ll see.

For us the World Cup begins after Sunday’s match.

As for José Luis CHILAVERT (1), we’re very fortunate to have him with us because the team has a great deal of respect for him, and if he ever decided to run for President of PARAGUAY I’d definitely vote for him.”