Afghanistan will face Paraguay tonight, Wednesday September 25, in their Round of 16 match in this year’s Futsal World Cup.
This is Afghanistan’s debut in the tournament while Paraguay is a seven-time participant.
Ranked 13th in the world, Paraguay was the top team in Group A.
Afghanistan is ranked by FIFA as 30th in the world.
The match will take place at the Homa Arena stadium in Tashkent and kicks off at 7.30pm.
Afghanistan played Paraguay in a friendly in Tashkent ahead of the start of the World Cup. They tied 2-2.
Speaking ahead of the match, Afghanistan winger Farzad Mahmoodi said: “Afghanistan’s presence in the top 16 teams of the 2024 World Cup is a great honor for the people of Afghanistan.
“We had a friendly match against Paraguay before the start of the World Cup, which ended in a 2-2 draw. We hope that tonight will be our night.
“With the support of our fans in Huma Arena, we will go into the game to win.”
Paraguay’s coach Carlos Chilavert meanwhile pointed out that the team knows Afghanistan are a force to be reckoned with.
“We know Afghanistan are very tough opponents. When we arrived here, we played a friendly against them and it was really even, really tough.
“They are a very hard-working team, with very good technical players. We know what we’re up against. We will have to be at our best if we want to have a chance of going through.”
Fans across Afghanistan can tune in to watch all the action on Ariana Television tonight. ATN is the official broadcaster of the tournament and is broadcasting matches live.