Italy averted a major upset after they equalised 1-1 with Paraguay in the 62nd minute in their opening 2010 FIFA World Cup encounter which is into its second half.

Italy's Daniele Derossi scored the equaliser after a corner kick from Pepe.

Paraguay Centre back, Antolin Alcaraz in the 38th minute headed home a goal from the back of a free kick to take the lead in the first half.

Looking at the matches that were played last night and early this morning, Netherlands began their FIFA World Cup campaign with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Denmark at Soccer City.

Both goals came in the second half after an assured first period of defending by the Scandinavians, who constantly thwarted a Dutch attack which appeared short of ideas without the injured Arjen Robben.

But the resistance was broken less than 60 seconds into the second half, when Robin van Persie's cross from the left was headed in the wrong direction by Simon Poulsen as he tried to head clear and sent it towards his own goal and it struck the back of Agger and went in.
 
Though FIFA have given Poulsen the honour of the own goal it is likely to be changed to Agger as the ball was not going in from Poulsen's header.

Dirk Kuyt doubled Netherlands' advantage five minutes from the end to ensure the highly fancied Oranje a positive start in Group E.

Meanwhile, Keisuke Honda's 39th minute goal was enough to give Japan a 1-0 victory over Group E rivals Cameroon in Bloemfontein.

Honda's close range strike was one of the few highlights of an otherwise forgettable game at the Free State Stadium.

The CSKA Moscow forward's goal handed a long awaited victory to Japan coach Takeshi Okada, who had seen his side lose four and draw one of their warm up matches, scoring only one goal in the process.

Looking at the games coming up, New Zealand plays Slovakia at 11.30pm tonight.