PHILADELPHIA – Kylian Mbappe scored his seventh goal of the tournament from the penalty spot as France survived a brutal, cynical Paraguay side whose tactics were branded “an absolute disgrace” by former England goalkeeper Joe Hart. The 1-0 victory in the last-16, which sets up a quarter-final against Morocco on Thursday, came after a match in which referee Ilgiz Tantashev failed to book a single Paraguay player despite a litany of fouls, elbows and scuffles.
“If they were on my team, I’d be dragging them off the pitch,” Hart told BBC One. “It was embarrassing to see,” added former England defender Micah Richards. “Paraguay are better than that. Defensively they were so good and they didn’t need to get into these antics.”
“France beat Paraguay 1-0 as referee Ilgiz Tantashev faces fury for not booking any Paraguay player despite violent conduct.”
France had dismantled all before them at this World Cup but found a new way to win in the punishing Philadelphia heat. Paraguay, who had knocked out Germany on penalties in the last round, deployed what former Scotland winger Pat Nevin called “every single dark art you can use”. Andres Cubas clattered into Adrien Rabiot without a booking. Juan Jose Caceres kicked out at Mbappe and escaped punishment. Gabriel Avalos dropped an elbow into Dayot Upamecano’s stomach while chasing the game – still no card. Astonishingly, three French players – Manu Kone, Bradley Barcola and Michael Olise – were all cautioned.
French newspaper L’Equipe gave Tantashev a 1/10 rating, writing: “The referee ... completely botched his game, issuing no cards to the Paraguay players.” Access Sport said he was “completely out of his depth”. Arsenal defender William Saliba complained: “I think the referee could have given a few yellow cards; that might have calmed them down a bit.” Manchester City’s Rayen Cherki said: “The refereeing? I have nothing to say. You saw for yourselves. How many fouls were there? 30, 40? Zero yellow cards? It doesn’t matter, we’re in the quarterfinals.”
The decisive moment came with 20 minutes left when Diego Gomez stuck out a leg to bring down Desire Doue. Tantashev reviewed the incident on the pitchside monitor and awarded a penalty. Even then, Paraguay’s players crowded the Uzbek official to delay the spot-kick, while Gustavo Velazquez tried to scuff the penalty spot before Mbappe scored. “There were some insults from the other bench we could have done without,” said France boss Didier Deschamps. A scuffle broke out after the final whistle, with Velazquez attempting to confront France players.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, working as a pundit on Fox, said: “It was a different challenge for France today; it was about not responding to provocations and remaining calm in the face of the tactics used by Paraguay.” For Paraguay, the plan worked for an hour – they completed just 62 passes in the first 70 minutes – but their discipline failed them. The question now: will FIFA take action against a referee who, in the words of i newspaper’s Daniel Storey, “let Paraguay play by prison rules” against France?