Kylian Mbappé scored the only goal from the penalty spot as France defeated Paraguay 1-0 in the World Cup round of 16 in Philadelphia on Saturday.
Paraguay’s physical tactics presented France with a difficult problem to solve, but eventually Mbappé had the final say with a second-half penalty.
Diego Gómez’s knee collided with the onrushing Désiré Doué, and with the aid of VAR, the referee pointed to the spot. Mbappé converted to open the scoring on 70 minutes.
Les Bleus scored 13 goals in the first five games of the tournament but were stymied in the first half by a Paraguay team trying to turn the match into a rock fight.
Tempers flared when Andrés Cubas took down Mbappé and the teams briefly pushed and shoved each other. Matías Galarza also threw his right elbow into Mbappé and sent him crashing to the grass.
“We knew what kind of match we were going to have,” Mbappé said after the match.
Read more:France’s Aurélien Tchouaméni (groin injury) out vs. Paraguay, could miss quarterfinals – sources
“I think that today [Saturday] , the match we had, the way we played it, was very good. We showed that we’re not just a team that knows how to play attacking football. If we have to get our hands dirty, we’ll get our hands dirty, excuse the expression. We have no problem with that.”
France will next face Morocco in the quarterfinal on Thursday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Morocco eliminated co-hosts Canada with a 3-0 win earlier on Saturday.
Mbappé’s penalty was his seventh goal of the 2026 World Cup, drawing him level with Argentina‘s Lionel Messi in the race for the Golden Boot.
He is still one behind Messi’s record of 20 all-time goals at the World Cup.
He might have drawn level with Messi but, with two minutes remaining, his long-range shot was beaten away by goalkeeper Orlando Gill. Then in stoppage time, Gill twice brilliantly denied Mbappé in quick succession.
Mbappé and Messi are the only players with at least seven goals at two different World Cups.
Mbappé won the Golden Boot four years ago in Qatar, but Messi and Argentina beat France in the final.
Messi scored his 20th career World Cup goal in Argentina’s 3-2 win over Cape Verde on Friday night. The 39-year-old great also has goals in a record eight consecutive World Cup games.
Norway’s Erling Haaland and England‘s Harry Kane are next in the 2026 Golden Boot race with five goals each.
If there’s a tie in the Golden Boot standings when the tournament ends, FIFA will use assists as the first tiebreaker and fewest minutes played as the second tiebreaker.
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Mbappé has a 2-0 lead over Messi in assists.
For the criticism that hydration breaks have watered down the pace of play at the World Cup, they were never more needed for the players than in the midst of a miserable heat wave. Sprinklers showered the Kentucky bluegrass field during the breaks and at halftime.
More than in any of the five other World Cup games played before 68,000-plus fans at Lincoln Financial Field, spectators fled for the concourse at halftime, seeking shade and refuge from the sun.
Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.
