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On this occasion, France kept the champagne football on ice. Which was probably just as well, given the temperature. As Philadelphia broiled in an Independence Day heatwave, the World Cup favourites were forced to drop a gear or two but still had too much for a Paraguay team that set out for a fight but were ultimately no more than a nuisance.
In the annals of France-Paraguay encounters this was more France 98, a 1-0 French victory in extra time, than Sweden 58, where Just Fontaine embellished his World Cup legend with a hat-trick. Les Bleus’ modern-day goal machine, Kylian Mbappé, had to make do with just the one, a penalty, to draw him level again with Lionel Messi in the Golden Boot race, but one behind the great man in terms of the all-time goalscoring record.
Paraguay, meanwhile, will return home with whatever gloss they had acquired by dumping Germany out in the last 32 now lost thanks to a performance that featured elbows thrown, careless tackles, and a relentless hammering of the referee, Ilgiz Tantashev of Uzbekistan. Not that Tantashev covered himself in glory with a lenient display. While Paraguay committed 13 fouls to France’s 11, they escaped without a single yellow card while their opponents received three.
Mbappé made Paraguay’s approach the focus of his post-match remarks to TV cameras. “We’ve shown we’re not just a team that knows how to play attacking football,” he said. “If we have to get our hands dirty, we will do it. They thought we’d show up in tuxedos to play, but we know how to play dirty football too. We won and we were better than them.”
This was undoubtedly a big occasion. And on the day of the semiquincentennial anniversary of the US declaration of independence, there was no way Philadelphia would not commemorate the moment. The celebration was predictably grand, with an interpretation of the stars and stripes rendered on the pitch, formation dancing and a performance of America the Beautiful by a boys’ choir. This being Philly, local rap superstars the Roots also performed a quick set and a member of the group bounced around in the formidable heat while also playing the french horn.
Rap at 100F – 38C – is possible, it appears, but playing football is more of a challenge. A game that was already likely to end up as cat chasing mouse was made even cagier by the fact neither party was able to chase. France dominated possession in the first half; as they returned to play after the opening, much-needed hydration break, they had 208 passes to Paraguay’s 33. Those passes were almost entirely in front of the Paraguay defence, however, as France sought to let the ball do the work on their behalf.
It was a long-term bet, a prediction that Paraguay would not be able to close down every gap for the duration of the match. Paraguay, meanwhile, had not signed up to be drummed into submission. They were compact, organised and possessed by a live spirit that sought only to frustrate and annoy the French at any opportunity. But after the half-time break, with shadow extending over much of the pitch, France were more like themselves and Paraguay had to resort to ever more desperate measures to stop them.
It was only in the 55th minute that the French had their first shot on target, a long-range effort from Manu Koné that was well saved by Orlando Gill. But there was little in the way of penetration into the Paraguay area and, after a succession of long-range efforts went nowhere, Deschamps acted, removing Bradley Barcola after he wasted an opportunity on the hour, and replacing him with Désiré Doué.
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It had the désiré-d effect. Stationed on the left, Doué immediately set about taking on the Paraguay defence and now you could see the impact on the South Americans of an hour chasing the ball. In the 64th minute Doué got the ball and went straight for the box. He beat one, he beat two and he was brought down by the third, Diego Gomez. Tantashev initially called no foul but, eventually, the video assistant referee had other ideas. When the penalty was confirmed, and Tantashev had restored the penalty spot after Paraguayan scuffing, Mbappé sent Gill the wrong way to score.
Gill denied the France captain in stoppage time with an impressive double save, which means Mbappé has only 19 goals in 19 World Cup appearances. With a quarter-final against Morocco just five days away, he will soon have a chance to correct the record.
