France-Paraguay – J.L. Chilavert: “France pushed hard, had a lot of shots on goal and that eventually paid off”

France-Paraguay – J.L. Chilavert: “France pushed hard, had a lot of shots on goal and that eventually paid off”

28.06.98 18h50 CET

José-Luis CHILAVERT, captain (1)

“Anything is possible in the World Cup. We lost today, but our team was united. I felt privileged to be part of this team. Towards the end of the match FRANCE pushed hard, had a lot of shots on goal and that eventually paid off. But our morale is high. We are heroes anyway despite this defeat and we will be welcomed as such when we return home. We have represented our country well”.

Julio Cesar ENCISCO (16)

“At the start everyone thought that PARAGUAY would let in lots of goals but we’ve proved them wrong. It’s sad as we hoped to go a long way in this competition. But the team is tired, we had to run a lot. FRANCE pushed hard. We lacked weight up front and lacked belief at the final moment but we leave with a clear conscience; we’ve achieved what we set out to do. Our aim was to get a draw and take it to penalties because we realised that we wouldn’t be able to score. We knocked out one favourite, SPAIN, and today we played a great game against another favourite”.

Aristides ROJAS (8)

“Most of us were waiting for penalties. Now we just have to carry on but we’ve still got a great deal to prove. To play in the colours of PARAGUAY is an honour. We had a great run and it was a great tournament. We knocked out SPAIN and BULGARIA when we weren’t even expecting to get through to the second round. But in the time we had left we could have knocked out FRANCE. We’re still going home happy”.

Ricardo ROJAS (14)

“We did our absolute maximum. We didn’t have as much luck as FRANCE. We would have had a chance if it had gone to penalties because our players are very good in that type of situation. We’re going to try to forget. Finally, we’ve had a good tournament and we believe in ourselves. No-one thought we would get this far, that we would get through the first round, especially in a group containing SPAIN and BULGARIA. We tried everything, but FRANCE have got a good team. They’ve got three matches to go before the final, they’ve got a good chance”.