France beat Paraguay 1-0 in the Round of 16 on Saturday to advance to the World Cup quarterfinals. Kylian Mbappe’s goal in the 70th minute turned out to be the difference. Then immediately after the game there was an incident involving the French star and Paraguay goalkeeper that led to pushing and shoving at midfield.
Paraguay tried to muck things up and that wasn’t limited to physical play. Ahead of Mbappe’s penalty attempt one of the opposing players tried to scuff up the area around the penalty dot.
By the end of the game Mbappe was laughing at Paraguay, but when the final whistle blew goalkeeper Orlando Gill tried to show some sportsmanship and shake hands with the only player to score. Instead Mbappe ignored him and walked past his extended hand while screaming. Having been denied a handshake the goalie then tossed the ball towards Mbappe, hitting him in the back. Meanwhile, back at midfield the teams were having words.
After the game Mbappe spoke about Paraguay’s tactics saying France expected them and they were ready to play ugly football. Via ESPN:
“We knew what kind of match it was going to be,” Mbappé said in French. “We can also get our hands dirty, we know how to do it. We know how to play ugly football. Guess they were thinking we were going to show up in tuxedos, but we were ready.”
France will meet Morocco at Foxboro on Thursday. The two countries met in the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup with France winning that game 2-0.
