World Cup 2026: ‘Disgraceful’ and ’embarrassing’ – France survive Paraguay’s dark arts
Mbappe scored 19 goals in 19 tournament matches, taking him one step behind Messi on the all-time scorers list in the World Cup.
Incredibly, since 2018, Mbappe has scored more goals (11) in the knockout rounds of the World Cup than Brazil (10), England (10), Portugal (9) and Spain (4).
It looked like it would be a frustrating match for France and their captain, who found the goal in the first half.
The extreme heat had an impact and this match went down in history as one of the hottest World Cup matches of all time. The temperature at kickoff was recorded as 38.3 degrees on the official page of the National Weather Service.
The record for a World Cup was 43 degrees when the Republic of Ireland played Mexico in Florida in 1994.
But France still found a way to overcome the heat and Paraguay’s heavy-handed tactics.
“We know how to play ugly football,” Mabppe said afterwards.
“Them [Paraguay] I thought we would come in tuxedos, but we were ready. Even in that match we were better than them.
“That’s their style of football; there’s no right or wrong way to play the game. They tried to beat us that way but we won.”
Deschamps, who is now the first manager to achieve 10 knockout victories at the World Cup, revealed he had instructed his players to protect Mbappe in the closing stages as Paraguay looked to find a way back into the game.
“I asked the two big guys to stay around Kylian at the end because they were going to cut him,” Deschamps added.
“It wasn’t easy. They use every trick in the book. It’s not the kind of football that will bring people to the stadium, but they defended well. That’s always difficult against South American teams.”
Mbappe was targeted from the start but kept his cool and reacted to Paraguay’s provocation by laughing at their tactics on the field.
“I like Mbappe’s behavior in this match,” said Hart.
“The Paraguayan players came for him from the first minute. He is allowed to be arrogant while laughing at the players.
“I would never want to play football like this. The referee was not helpful in any situation. It is surprising that not a single Paraguayan received a yellow card in the 90 minutes.”
Former Germany midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger told BBC One he has “no respect” for Paraguay for their behaviour.
“If you’re Paraguayan, you probably love the team; they’re like warriors,” he added.
“If you are French or neutral, you can no longer respect them. It’s not only shameful, it’s worse.”
