SOGWIPO (South Korea), June 14: If Germany beat Paraguay in the second round Saturday it will confirm their emergence from the worst crisis in their glorious football history.

Playing in the second round was once business as usual for Germany but a series of dreadful results, culminating in a 5-1 thrashing by England in a World Cup qualifier in Munich, rocked the team’s confidence.

After disappearing from the last two World Cups in the quarter-finals, and making an embarrassing first-round exit from Euro 2000, Germany had entered this year’s tournament with lower expectations than usual, and coach Rudi Voeller named the opening knock-out stage as their minimum aim.

But they are more ambitious after surviving the first round undefeated and netting plenty of goals — including five from top scorer Miroslav Klose.

Nobody was under-estimating Paraguay, who battled through the first round not unlike the Germans themselves as both teams conceded a late equaliser in their penultimate group match before fighting with 10 men for victory in the deciders.

“They beat Brazil and drew with Argentina twice, which says a lot about their ability,” Germany coach Michael Skibbe said.

“We now have Germany. It will be a very difficult match as are all matches in the World Cup,” Maldini said.

Voeller was equally pleased after his side overcame the sending off of key defender Carsten Ramelow to tame the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon 2-0 on Tuesday.

Germany paid a high price for the win as Ramelow, Dietmar Hamann and Christian Ziege are all suspended for Saturday’s match, but Klose should be as dangerous as ever while playmaker Michael Ballack has looked better with every game.

Doing well at a World Cup is nothing new for Paraguay, who reached the second round in 1986 before losing 3-0 to England.

At the last World Cup in 1998, Paraguay were knocked out in the second round by a golden goal from France, who went on to win the tournament.

Probable teams:

Germany (4-4-2): 1-Oliver Kahn; 3-Marko Rehmer, 21-Christoph Metzelder, 2-Thomas Linke, 22-Thorsten Frings; 19-Bernd Schneider, 16-Jens Jeremies, 13-Michael Ballack, 17-Marco Bode; 11-Miroslav Klose, 7-Oliver Neuville.

Paraguay (5-3-2): 1-Jose Luis Chilavert; 2-Franciso Arce, 4-Carlos Gamarra, 5-Celso Ayala, 18-Julio Cesar Caceres, 21-Denis Caniza; 17-Juan Carlos Franco, 10-Roberto Acuna, 11-Jorge Campos; 20-Jose Cardozo, 9-Roque Santa Cruz.

Officials to be confirmed later.—Reuters