Kylian Mbappé settled France’s 1-0 win over Paraguay and kept watch football live attention on a match that turned on one penalty in Philadelphia. The result sent Les Bleus into the last eight and left Mbappé level with Lionel Messi on seven goals in the Golden Boot race.
Mbappé and the penalty
Mbappé scored the only goal from the spot, then told TV cameras, “We’ve shown we’re not just a team that knows how to play attacking football.” He added, “If we have to get our hands dirty, we will do it.”
He also said, “They thought we’d show up in tuxedos to play, but we know how to play dirty football too.” Then he summed up the result plainly: “We won and we were better than them.”
Philadelphia in 100F heat
The match unfolded in an Independence Day heatwave, with the temperature at 100F, or 38C. France had 208 passes to Paraguay’s 33 after the opening hydration break, and that control became the clearest sign of which side was dictating the game.
France’s first shot on target did not arrive until the 55th minute, when Manu Koné’s long-range effort was saved by Orlando Gill. Deschamps then removed Bradley Barcola after a run of long-range efforts went nowhere, and France still found the one moment that mattered.
Paraguay’s fouls, France’s cards
Paraguay finished with 13 fouls and no yellow cards. France committed 11 fouls and received three yellow cards, which fit Mbappé’s post-match claim that his side could play dirty football too.
The sharper edge also fits the wider scoreline. France 98 ended with a 1-0 French victory in extra time in a France-Paraguay encounter, and Sweden 58 remains linked to Just Fontaine’s hat-trick; here, Mbappé’s penalty gave France the cleaner route through. Paraguay had already dumped Germany out in the last 32, but Ilgiz Tantashev’s match ended with France still in the tournament and Paraguay out.
Mbappé’s goal carried a second weight as well. It moved him level with Lionel Messi on seven goals in the Golden Boot race and left him one behind Lionel Messi in the all-time goalscoring record, a small gap that now sits alongside France’s place in the last eight.
