In the World Cup Round of 16, Paraguay lost 0-1 to France. After the match, Paraguay's coach Alfaro was interviewed by D Sports, discussing his team's tactical arrangements during the game.

How do you evaluate this match? It was a very close contest. From a tactical perspective, despite the result, in my opinion, you were actually the true winners (Note: Latin American journalist), because the opponent ultimately relied on a penalty kick and substitutions to break the deadlock.

I don't entirely agree with that statement. The complexity of this match was very high.

Previously against Germany, we needed to double-team Wirtz and Sane because Germany primarily attacked through the wings. Today, against France, we needed to focus on limiting four players.

Dembele on the right flank required defensive support; Doue also needed close marking after coming on as a substitute; and then there were Mbappe, Barcola, and Olise, who was responsible for linking up the entire team. I showed the players their heatmap of movements, analyzed their areas of activity, passing routes, and how they delivered dangerous balls forward. Most of their attacks were completed through central penetration, with very few ending in crosses; instead, they mostly involved through balls and vertical penetration.

Therefore, this required us to divide the field into four zones. When Dembele had the ball, who would provide defensive support and where would we create a local numerical advantage; when Olise received the ball in the center, how should we double-team him; when Mbappe made a diagonal run between the second and first center-backs, we had to block his running path in advance; when he dropped back to receive the ball and then suddenly burst forward to find space behind, we also had to keep up; when Barcola moved wide to the flank, we also needed to arrange double-teaming.

Later, they brought on Doue and Cherki, both of whom possess equally high individual skill, keeping our defense under immense pressure throughout.

The real key to this match lay in individual skill. When tactical systems cannot find a solution, individual skill often creates one. Ultimately, it was Doue's individual dribbling ability that allowed him to escape in a tight space and, even while losing his balance, still create the penalty decision after VAR intervention. It was precisely through this moment of individual skill that France found the breakthrough they had been unable to find throughout the entire match.

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