Read 3 minutesPhiladelphiaUpdated: 5 July 2026 08:29 AM IST
France manager Didier Deschamps has said there is a fear of injury for his star forward Kylian Mbappe against Paraguay. The Paraguayans treated him so cruelly that he stumbled several times. So he asked two of his biggest teammates to guard him. “I told the two oldest boys to go and stand around Kylian at the end because they were going to break him,” Deschamps said.
So dying keeper Deot Upamecano was pushed on at the last minute so he could endure a hack aimed at Mbappe. He accomplished his goal admirably even without picking up a yellow card. At the other end, midfielder Adrien Rabiot, never one to shy away from a challenge, would fiercely defend Mbappe, who was dragged off his feet several times.
France held back. But it was difficult, he said. “It was not easy. They used as many resources as possible. Maybe not the kind of football that brings people to the stadium, plays with that aggression, exaggerates everything,” he said.
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He refused to criticize the referee, who did not give a single card to any Paraguayan player. “I won’t criticize the referee, but we finished the game with three bookings, and there was still a lot going on. We focused on our game. It was tough; they had a lot of men behind the ball and they defended well,” Deschamps said in his post-match press conference.
He also refrained from criticizing Paraguay’s tactics. “I will not criticize Paraguay. Every team can play the way they want, but I can do without insults. The most important thing is that there was no incident in the end. But the most important thing is that we qualified,” he said.
He asserted that this experience would be useful to his side. “This experience will help us. After all, we have a lot of players who are playing their first World Cup. I wouldn’t say it has been easy for us so far, but now we have a different kind of game,” he said.
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The focus is now on recovery in time for the quarter-final clash against Morocco on July 9 in Boston. “Morocco is one of the best teams. We played them four years ago in Doha and they also reached the final of the Africa Cup of Nations. We have a few days to get fit. We have some tired players and some short spells,” he said.