Kylian Mbappe kept his cool to fire France into a World Cup quarter‑final, scoring his seventh goal of the tournament from the penalty spot after a brutal, ugly Round of 32 encounter in which Paraguay tried to bludgeon them into submission.
The Real Madrid striker sent goalkeeper Orlando Gill the wrong way in the second half, the only goal in a 1‑0 win that was far from the free‑flowing football France had shown earlier in the competition. Instead, this was a war of attrition in the extreme Philadelphia heat, with Paraguay targeting Mbappe with relentless kicks and provocative challenges.
“Kylian Mbappe's penalty sends France into quarter-finals after a brutal match against Paraguay's 'dirty football' tactics.”
Despite the onslaught, referee Ilgiz Tantashev kept his cards in his pocket – remarkably, Paraguay did not receive a single yellow card, while France ended the game with more bookings. William Saliba, one of several France players involved in post‑match clashes with Paraguay’s Gustavo Velazquez, revealed the French camp had been expecting such tactics.
“The coach warned us two or three days before to stay focused on the game,” Saliba said, “He showed us some videos. They were going to get in our faces, commit fouls, provoke us. We had to stay focused on the game because if we started to lose energy, get confused and lose our focus, it wasn’t going to work. So, we stayed focused.”
Mbappe, the tournament’s joint leading scorer, did not hold back afterwards. “We knew what kind of match we were going to have,” he said, per RMC Sport. “If we have to get our hands dirty, we know how to do it. We know how to play dirty football. They thought we were going to come and play in tuxedos, but we were there. Even in that game, we were better than them. That’s their football; there’s no right or wrong way to play football. They tried to get us that way, but we won.”
France, who had been accustomed to scoring three goals per game earlier in the tournament, had to dig deep for a gritty victory. “It’s not easy and it also feels good sometimes to win hard‑fought matches like this because since the start of the competition, we’ve been used to scoring three,” Saliba added. “Today, it’s a 1‑0 victory, but it has the same merit.”
The win sends Didier Deschamps’ side into the quarter‑finals, while Paraguay – who had stunned Germany in the previous round – exit the tournament after their controversial approach failed to pay off.