BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa (Reuters) – Paraguay beat a lackluster Slovakia 2-0 to move top of Group F on Sunday and close in on a World Cup second round place.

Enrique Vera put the South Americans ahead after 27 minutes and Cristian Riveros grabbed a second four minutes from time in a game of few chances at Free State Stadium.
The win puts Paraguay on four points and leaves Slovakia with one. World champions Italy and outsiders New Zealand, who have one point each, meet in Nelspruit later on Sunday.
“It was a great match. We scored and feel close to the round of 16. I think we can reach that. We'll play the next match as if it's the final,” said Paraguay goalscorer Vera.
“It was very tough, the opposition played well but we never got desperate,” added the man of the match.
South American teams have now won six and drawn two of the eight games they have played in South Africa so far.
“We lost the match because we were not bold up field,” said Slovakia coach Vladimir Weiss whose goal-shy team managed just one shot on target in the whole match.
“Paraguay didn't play as well as they can and still we lost. We paid for our mistakes but didn't manage to punish our opponents for theirs,” he added.