The flags of Australia and Paraguay are on full displayed before the playing of the national anthems before both countries final match in Group D play of the FIFA 2026 World Cup at San Francisco Bay Area Stadium on Thursday JUN 25, 2026. (Marko Ukalovic-SRS)

by Marko Ukalovic

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Australia and Paraguay dragged out to a scoreless draw in their final match in Group D play of the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Thursday evening at San Francisco Bay Area Stadium.

Australia finished Group D with four points, good enough for second place and an automatic bid to the Round of 32. Paraguay also finished with four points but ended up in third as they had a worse goal differential than the Aussies minus two to zero. Paraguay is in the fourth spot of the third-place teams and is in good position to advance to the knockout round. The top eight third-place team advance along with the 24 group winners and second place finishers.

Australia (1-1-1) made six changes to the starting XI that faced the United States in their 2-0 loss. Aziz Behich, Lucas Herrington, Jackson Irvine, Nestory Irankunda, Connor Metcalfe and Cristian Volpato were inserted to start by head coach Tony Popovic. Mathew Leckie and Jacob Italiano are injured, Cameron Burgess, Paul Okon-Engstler, Mohamed Touré and Nishan Velupillay were benched to begin the game.

Lucas Herrington made his World Cup debut at 18 years of age. Twelve months ago, he was barely playing senior football and now is playing for Barcelona in the La Liga.

Paraguay (1-1-1) made 3 changes to their starting XI that faced Turkiye. Alexandro Maidana, Gustavo Velázquez and Gabriel Ávalos come in today. Miguel Almiron is suspended from receiving a red card for covering his mouth in the last match, Junior Alonso and Isidro Pitta started on the bench for La Albirroja (white and red).

Both teams found it difficult to create quality scoring chances in the first half. Australia’s Jody Bos recorded his team’s first shot on target in the 36th minute. Bos’s shot from long distance was saved by Paraguayan goalkeeper Orlando Gil. The Socceroos finished with three shots on target while Paraguay didn’t register any in the opening 45 minutes.

The match featured a lot of physicality on both sides and things got even chippier in the second half as hard tackles as well as pushes and shoves were being allowed by referee Clement Turpin to the frustration of both teams.

Both countries had chances in stoppage time to break the deadlock and earn three points. Paraguay’s Mauricio attempt in the third minute of stoppage time was saved by Australian goalkeeper Patrick Beach. Then a minute later Ajdin Rustic cut back into the middle and found Tete Yengi who wasn’t able to muster much power on his shot attempt as Gil gobbled up the last chance of the match.

Beach made five saves and Gil had two for their respective clean sheets.