France were knocked through the ringer by Paraguay in their round of 16, but came out smiling.
Despite cynical, ferocious defending with several episodes of Paraguay scullery, this marked the first World Cup match in which no Paraguay player received a yellow card since 1998. After the final whistle, the assistant coach was only shown a yellow card. The official record had 11 fouls committed by Paraguay, compared to 13 for France – but this required the referee to blow the whistle to register a foul.
Wounded but helpless in their campaign. But they did take some tremendous hits, and the list of Paraguay’s Dirty Dozen tricks reads something like this:
* Dew failed in the box, leading to the winning penalty.
* River Plate midfielder Matias Galarza, who plays in Argentina, again used his cynical dirty tricks on the right wing, beating Mbappe on the arm to clear the ball.
* A case can be made for two clear red cards against Galarza through the match. His second : a palm to the face of Jules Kounde. Kaunde took the hand twice in the match.
Galarza then crumpled to the ground clutching his face in pain after Michael Ollis pulled the jersey – despite no contact. Uzbek referee Ilgiz Tantashev showed Olis a yellow card.
* Gustavo Velazquez, a Paraguayan defender, pulls over with a kick from the penalty spot, while Ousmane Dembele stands with the ball in his hands. Dembele laughed it off. Mbappe scored.
* Paraguay’s substitutes kept running to the ref, appealing for free kicks and cards for simple French challenges.
* The words were spoken and Deschamps said afterward that he “could have done without the insults from the Paraguayan bench.” What was said was not detailed, but Paraguay’s coach defended his hyena pack, saying “they will not stoop that low”.
* When Mbappe ignored Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando Gil’s handshake, Gil responded by throwing the ball at Mbappe’s back.
* Deot Upmechano’s elbow had slipped into the ribs.
* Andres Cubas ran through Adrien Rabiot as if he didn’t exist with a nasty streak.
* Stops were deliberately prolonged and wasted a lot of time. A Paraguayan defender kicked the ball into the second tier of the stadium, hoping to eat up a few seconds.
* A Paraguayan player took 18 seconds to throw-in.
The reactions of the French team and pundits in TV studios showed just how ugly the game was.
France24 English posted a number of interviews from the mixed zone, while TV shows around the world cut down on a football game of terrible quality.
Sample reactions:
* Bradley Barcola to France24 English:
“I’ve never played a match with so many shots before. You could even say there were some pretty nasty shots, with push backs. It was tough because after my yellow card, I had to be careful defending, especially with all the shots I took. I couldn’t react or fall into a game like that. So it was really tough.”
* William Saliba to France 24:
“They would come at us hard, foul and try to provoke us. We had to stay in the game, because if we start wasting energy, get into arguments and lose our focus, things won’t go well. So we focused. It’s not easy, but sometimes it feels good to win a tough match like this, because today we used three goals. It was a 1-0 win, but it’s just as valuable.”
“I think the referee could have shown some yellow cards. That would have calmed things down a bit. We knew they were going to try to take us out of our game, because the coach had prepared us for it two or three days in advance.”
* Ryan Cherky to France24:
“We knew it was going to be a very tight game. But it was important for us to play a game like this during the World Cup – to remind everyone that the French team can play beautiful football, but also fight.”
“I have nothing to say about the refereeing. You saw it yourself. How many fouls? 30? 40? And no yellow cards. But it doesn’t matter. We’re in the quarter-finals.
* Kylian Mbappe:
“We showed that we’re not just a team that plays aggressive attacking football. If we want to put our hands in the s**, we’ll put our hands in the s**. They thought we’d show up in a tuxedo, make some fancy moves, but not just football. We did that today. We were better than them.”
* L’Equipe Rating:
“Referee: 1/10”
* Joe Hart, to BB
“The Paraguayan players were an absolute disgrace. If they were my players I would have dragged them off the pitch. I would never have wanted to win that way. I don’t want to play football that way. The referee didn’t help in any way. The fact that not a single Paraguayan was booked within 90 minutes is amazing.
“I like how Mbappe behaved in this game. The Paraguayan players came for him from the first minute. He was allowed to be arrogant when he was smiling at the players.
* Zlatan Ibrahimovic on Fox Sports:
“At least 4-5 red cards in a game like this. And I send some to the mmm.. hospital. I like to play the real game.”
*Thierry Henry on Fox:
“Football won. I don’t want to talk about Paraguay.”
* Didier Deschamps:
“I told the two biggest boys to go and stand around Kylian at the end because they were going to break him down. It wasn’t easy. They used every trick in the book. It’s not the type of football that brings people to the stadium, but they defended well. It’s always tough against these South American teams.”
“If we had responded to the provocation like Germany did, it could have gone very badly for us. I am happy with my team’s behaviour.”
* Micah Richards, former England defender for BBC One.
“It was embarrassing to watch. Paraguay are better than them. Defensively they were very good and they didn’t need to fall into these things.”
* Pat Nevin, former Scotland winger Pat Nevin on BBC Radio 5 Live:
“Paraguay tried to turn the French players around, did a bit of attacking and shoving but not enough to get a yellow card…every dark art you can use.”
* Thomas Hitzlsperger, former Germany midfielder, to BBC One
“If you’re from Paraguay, you might like the team – they’re like warriors. If you’re French or neutral, you can’t respect them. It’s not just shameful, it’s worse.”