Santa Cruz satisfied with campaign despite missed chances

ROQUE Santa Cruz said there was no point dwelling on what may or may not have been after Paraguay bowed out of the World Cup.

"We don't talk about things that could or could not have happened," he said. "Of course in that case, we had a penalty that we missed. Besides that we kept doing the same job and I think we kept ourselves very much in the game until the second half where they had two or three chances.

"But we also had our chances and we didn't make them into the goals we needed to get back into the game. So we are still very pleased with the performance we did."

The Manchester City striker, who struggled with injury for large parts of last season, replaced Nelson Valdez, who had a goal ruled out for off-side, midway through the second half. He looked slightly off the pace and was also thwarted by a fine save from Iker Casillas moments before the end. Asked if he was still struggling to overcome his injuries, Santa Cruz added: "I don't think so. Like you saw, I came in and played 20-plus minutes.

"The chances were there, but in football sometimes you don't manage to take them. Their goalkeeper made some good saves, so you can't do anything about this. I'm pleased with the performance, the whole team was fantastic."

Santa Cruz, though, paid tribute to what the South Americans had achieved in South Africa, from topping their group, which also included Italy, to being amongst the best eight countries in the world. He continued: "We are proud as Paraguay with the overall performance. We still believe that we didn't perform probably as well as we expected, but we are in the most important football tournament in the world where opponents are all much tougher than we usually have in friendlies. So we are happy with what we achieved." Spain now face Germany in the semi-finals - not since 1950, where they were part of a four-team final group, have they had such an opportunity to reach the final. Santa Cruz, the former Bayern Munich forward, believes it will not be easy for Vicente Del Bosque's team.

"There is still a long way and there are tough countries. Spain play Germany, who showed a great display against Argentina and it's hard not to talk about Germany as well. It shows that it's not only good luck that allows Germany to reach so far in every single World Cup. It's going to be a very tough game for Spain again."