Yūichi Komano missed the third Japan spot-kick to ensure Paraguay progressed 5-3 on penalties to face Spain in the last eight of the World Cup.
The second round match at Pretoria's Loftus Versfeld Stadium ended goalless after extra-time, but it came as no surprise as the cagey affair was a game no neutral really fancied watching.
The first five kicks in the shoot-out all went in before Komano smashed his spot-kick onto the crossbar and over.
Nelson Haedo Valdez kept his head to smash it down the middle then Keisuke Honda gave Japan hope by coolly beating Justo Villar.
But substitute Óscar Cardozo kept his nerve to net the last and send the South Americans into wild celebrations on the pitch.
Lineups:
Paraguay: Justo Villar; Carlos Bonet, Paulo da Silva, Antolín Alcaraz, Claudio Morel; Enrique Vera, Néstor Ortigoza (Édgar Barreto, 75), Cristian Riveros; Roque Santa Cruz (Óscar Cardozo, 94), Lucas Barrios, Édgar Benítez (Nelson Haedo Valdez, 60)
Japan: Eiji Kawashima; Yūichi Komano, Yuji Nakazawa, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Yuto Nagatomo; Yuki Abe (Kengo Nakamura, 81); Makoto Hasebe, Daisuke Matsui (Shinji Okazaki, 65), Yasuhito Endō, Yoshito Ōkubo (Keiji Tamada, 106); Keisuke Honda
Penalty Shoot-Out:
Statistics:
Also see:
The second round match at Pretoria's Loftus Versfeld Stadium ended goalless after extra-time, but it came as no surprise as the cagey affair was a game no neutral really fancied watching.
The first five kicks in the shoot-out all went in before Komano smashed his spot-kick onto the crossbar and over.
Nelson Haedo Valdez kept his head to smash it down the middle then Keisuke Honda gave Japan hope by coolly beating Justo Villar.
But substitute Óscar Cardozo kept his nerve to net the last and send the South Americans into wild celebrations on the pitch.
Lineups:
Paraguay: Justo Villar; Carlos Bonet, Paulo da Silva, Antolín Alcaraz, Claudio Morel; Enrique Vera, Néstor Ortigoza (Édgar Barreto, 75), Cristian Riveros; Roque Santa Cruz (Óscar Cardozo, 94), Lucas Barrios, Édgar Benítez (Nelson Haedo Valdez, 60)
Japan: Eiji Kawashima; Yūichi Komano, Yuji Nakazawa, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Yuto Nagatomo; Yuki Abe (Kengo Nakamura, 81); Makoto Hasebe, Daisuke Matsui (Shinji Okazaki, 65), Yasuhito Endō, Yoshito Ōkubo (Keiji Tamada, 106); Keisuke Honda
Penalty Shoot-Out:
| Paraguay | Japan | |
| Édgar Barreto | 1 - 1 | Yasuhito Endō |
| Lucas Barrios | 2 - 2 | Makoto Hasebe |
| Cristian Riveros | 3 - 2 | Yūichi Komano |
| Nelson Haedo Valdez | 4 - 3 | Keisuke Honda |
| Óscar Cardozo | 5 - 3 |
Statistics:
| Paraguay | Japan | |
| 0 | Goals | 0 |
| 6 | Shots on target | 4 |
| 8 | Shots off target | 8 |
| 6 | Corners | 5 |
| 26 | Fouls | 28 |
| 1 | Offsides | 1 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 4 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 60 | Ball possession (%) | 40 |
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