大象传媒

Gary Lineker introduces coverage from Cape Town as reigning World Cup champions Italy begin the defence of their crown against Paraguay.

The Azzurri are appearing in their 17th World Cup finals and are strong favourites to progress from group F - they last failed to go beyond the opening round in 1974.

Paraguay have reached the last 16 stage in three of their last four World Cup appearances and beat Brazil during qualifying. But their preparations suffered a huge set-back when star striker Salvador Cabanas was shot in a bar, ruling him out of this summer's finals.