It wasn’t pretty and it took some time, but a 70th minute penalty from Kylian Mbappé broke the deadlock as France advanced to the round of 16 with a 1-0 win over Paraguay on Saturday.
Sports News
It took some time for the game to really evolve in the sweltering summer heat, and both sides exchanged fouls and angry words throughout a first half with just five shots and a combined xG of 0.20 (Paraguay 0.05, France 0.15). In the end, France earned a penalty when Paraguay’s Diego Gomez felled sub Désiré Doué inside the area, and after a lengthy delay for VAR review, referee Ilgiz Tantashev pointed to the spot.
Up stepped Mbappe, sending goalkeeper Orlando Gill the wrong way and producing the winning margin. The goal, Mbappe’s seventh of the World Cup, ties Argentina’s Lionel Messi in the Golden Boot race. It also makes him just the second player (alongside Messi) to score seven or more times at two different World Cups, with both doing it in 2022 and 2026.
Up next for France is a date with Morocco in Boston on Thursday, while La Albirroja head home with heads held high.
Key Moments
ESPN’s Gab Marcotti, Rob Dawson and Julien Laurens break down the action from Philly.
France pass a different kind of test vs. Paraguay
After beating up Senegal (in the second half), Iraq and Norway’s B-team in group play followed by a thoroughly overmatched Sweden in the round of 32, Paraguay presented an entirely different type of opponent. One high on the adrenaline of knocking out four-time winners Germany, and also one doubly convinced that the formula that led to that victory could work in a knockout setting.
Analysis
A low block to deny France’s “Fab Four” (Mbappe, Ousmane Dembélé, Michael Olise and Bradley Barcola) any space behind. Breaking up the game at every opportunity, whether by deploying a crunching tackle, taking a little longer to get up after a collision, jawing with an opponent or the Uzbek ref Tantashev and hoping that their roadrunners, Miguel Almirón and Julio Enciso, could nick something at the other end, usually by themselves.
And they did all this in the oven of South Philly, where temperatures and a heat dome made this the toastiest day in more than a decade.
– World Cup match schedule: All fixtures, results, features
Stay informed with the latest news on Wararka.so — your trusted source for Somalia and world news.
