PHILADELPHIA: France coach Didier Deschamps hailed his side for keeping their cool against an aggressive Paraguay team in heatwave conditions on Saturday as the favourites reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup.

“It wasn’t easy. They used every resource possible. It is maybe not the kind of football that brings people to the stadium, playing with that aggression, exaggerating everything,” Deschamps told French broadcaster M6.

Kylian Mbappe decided the game with a penalty in the 70th minute on a sweltering afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, following a foul on Desire Doue.

Mbappe’s goal was his seventh so far at the tournament, pulling him level again with Lionel Messi as the joint-leading scorer.

Before that, it had been a frustrating afternoon for Les Bleus, and a sharp contrast to their previous free-scoring matches at the tournament.

France had scored 13 goals in their four World Cup outings prior to this game, but on Saturday they struggled to make clear chances despite totally dominating possession.

Their most creative players — Michael Olise, Ousmane Dembele and Bradley Barcola — all found the going tough against a niggly Paraguayan team looking to cause another upset after ousting Germany in the last 32.

“We stayed focused on our game. It was difficult, they had lots of men behind the ball and they defend well,” added Deschamps.

“Obviously the temperatures made it hard to play with intensity and without that they defended well.”

HEATWAVE

The match was played in the late afternoon heat, with temperatures hitting 38 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) in Philadelphia as the city marked the July 4 weekend and the 250th anniversary of American independence.

Deschamps was also left perplexed that his team collected three yellow cards, while not a single Paraguay player was booked.

“I am not going to criticise the referee but we finished the game with three bookings and yet there were a lot of things going on,” Deschamps said in his post-match press conference, as he suggested he and his team were subjected to verbal aggression too.

“I won’t criticise Paraguay. Every team can play however they want, but I could do without the insults.

“The most important thing is that there were no incidents at the end. But all that matters is that we have qualified.”

Deschamps said he had to resort to using two of his strongest players to protect captain Mbappe against Paraguayan aggression towards the end of the match.

“We kept our nerve and that is an essential thing. It doesn’t win you the game but it is important,” he added.

“This experience will help us. After all, we have a lot of players who are playing at their first World Cup,” he added.

“I wouldn’t say it had been easy for us up to now but now we have had a different type of game.”

France move on to a quarter-final tie next Thursday in Foxborough, Massachusetts, against Morocco, who beat Canada 3-0 in the last 16 earlier Saturday.

That game will be a repeat of the 2022 semi-final which France won 2-0, before they went on to lose the final on penalties to Argentina.

“Morocco are one of the best teams. We played them four years ago in Doha and they also got to the Africa Cup of Nations final,” Deschamps said.

He will hope his squad reco­ver quickly from the Paraguay clash, and that key midfielder Aurelien Tchou­ameni comes back after missing Saturday’s game with a thigh injury.

“We have a few days now to recuperate. We have some tired players and a few little knocks too.”

FOUGHT LIKE LIONS

Meanwhile, Paraguay coach Gustavo Alfaro said his side had “fought like lions”.

“France couldn’t find the answers, and it took a bit of individual skill and a penalty given by VAR to make the difference which their football had not been able to do,” Alfaro said after the game.

The South American nation were appearing at the World Cup for the first time since 2010 and had been hoping to match their run to the quarter-finals at that tournament, which rem­ains best ever showing.

The tactics they employed to try to unsettle their opponents irritated Mbappe.

But Alfaro insisted his men had “fought like lions out on the pitch”.

He added: “It took us 16 years to get back to a World Cup, while Mbappe won the World Cup the first time he played in it, got to the final in his second and now is fighting to be the top scorer.”

It remains the case that Para­guay’s only victories in the knockout stages of the World Cup have come in penalty shoot-outs — including against Germ­any in Boston in the last 32.

“We worked so hard to get a different result but I will leave here with the knowledge that we came to compete and we did compete,” added Alfaro, who added that his team were in tears of disappointment in the dressing room after the match.

“I have no doubt that this World Cup has made us all better, although I am sad to go out because I hoped we might go further.”

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2026