France talisman Kylian Mbappe pushed Andres Cubas to start out a mass confrontation as Paraguay held agency to make sure their last-16 tie towards the event favourites reached half-time goalless in Philadelphia.
Vancouver Whitecaps midfielder Cubas introduced six-goal Mbappe down not removed from the Paraguay penalty space, inflicting the Actual Madrid ahead to shove him within the chest earlier than quite a few gamers from each side squared up to one another.
“It’s a transparent foul from Cubas,” former England defender Stephen Warnock instructed BBC Sport. “I don’t know the way it’s not a yellow card, truly.
“They’re underneath [France’s] pores and skin. That’s precisely what they need. They need that response. They need retaliation. It implies that France are annoyed.”
Paraguay making an attempt to unsettle Kylian Mbappe 👀😬
He’s been concerned in just a few bodily exchanges within the match with France. pic.twitter.com/XkiKzWP0Ml
— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) July 4, 2026
France vs Paraguay: Mbappe ‘irritated’ at World Cup
Paraguay took 4 factors of their group earlier than knocking Germany out on penalties however had been appreciable underdogs towards a Bleus aspect who scored 13 targets throughout 4 opening wins.
Cubas, who appeared to share a cordial joke with Mbappe shortly afterwards, was not the one Paraguay participant to use tough therapy to the 27-year-old, who began the sport one purpose behind finals high scorer Lionel Messi.
“It’s in contrast to Kylian Mbappe to be annoyed, nevertheless it’s one other tactical foul,” mentioned Warnock, calling Paraguay’s defensive resolve “distinctive” and including that head coach Gustavo Alfaro would have “dreamt” and “hoped” for his crew’s first-half displaying.
“It’s slowing the play down. It’s irritating the French. Mbappe wasn’t going to permit the referee to be the one one who had a say about it.
“That may delight Paraguay, as a result of they know that France are getting just a bit bit irritated by proceedings.”
World Cup 2026: Paraguay crew vs France
Diego Gomez returned from suspension as considered one of three new faces in Paraguay’s line-up alongside Gustavo Velazquez and Omar Alderete.
Jose Canale, Damian Bobadilla and Gabriel Avalos moved to the bench.
Paraguay beginning XI: Orlando Gill, Gustavo Velazquez, Omar Alderete, Juan Jose Caceres, Junior Alonso, Gustavo Gomez, Diego Gomez, Miguel Almiron, Andres Cubas, Matias Galarza, Julio Enciso
Paraguay substitutes: Gatito Fernandez, Gaston Olveira, Fabian Balbuena, Jose Canale, Alexandro Maidana, Ramon Sosa, Mauricio, Damian Bobadilla, Braian Ojeda, Gustavo Caballero, Antonio Sanabria, Alejandro Romero Gamarra, Alex Arce, Gabriel Avalos, Isidro Pitta
World Cup 2026: France crew vs Paraguay
Manu Kone changed Aurelien Tchouameni, who had a groin subject, in France’s one change from their dismantling of Sweden within the final 32.
France beginning XI: Mike Maignan, Lucas Digne, Dayot Upamecano, Jules Kounde, William Saliba, Manu Kone, Adrien Rabiot, Ousmane Dembele, Kylian Mbappe, Michael Olise, Bradley Barcola
France substitutes: Brice Samba, Robin Risser, Malo Gusto, Ibrahima Konate, Theo Hernandez, Lucas Hernandez, Maxence Lacroix, Aurelien Tchouameni, Ngolo Kante, Warren Zaire-Emery, Rayan Cherki, Maghnes Akliouche, Marcus Thuram, Want Doue, Jean-Philippe Mateta
The place to look at Paraguay vs France: TV channel, on-line dwell stream
Kick-off on Saturday was at 22:00 BST (17:00 ET / 14:00 PT). Within the UK, dwell TV protection is on BBC One.
Streaming on an unlimited vary of units is out there by way of the BBC iPlayer app and BBC Sport web site.
World Cup 2026: Paraguay vs France stats
- Michael Olise has 5 assists on the finals for France and is one away from matching Pele’s World Cup document of six at a single event
- France have gained 15 of their 18 World Cup matches for the reason that begin of the 2018 event
- Didier Deschamps has recorded 18 World Cup victories as a supervisor, which is essentially the most in event historical past
- Now 57, Deschamps was captain when France beat Paraguay within the final 16 on their technique to glory on residence soil on the 1998 finals, successful 1-0 by way of a 113th-minute Laurent Blanc purpose
- Paraguay had solely progressed from a World Cup knockout tie as soon as beforehand, successful 5-3 on penalties towards Japan within the 2010 final 16
- La Albirroja have misplaced considered one of their 4 matches on the World Cup 2026 however haven’t crushed France in 5 earlier conferences (D2 L3), dropping each such matches on the World Cup
- They haven’t scored greater than as soon as in any of their final seven matches on the World Cup
- With 33 targets in 31 World Cup matches (1.1 per sport), Paraguay have the bottom common of any nation to have performed not less than 30 matches on the finals aside from South Korea (41 in 41).
- Julio Enciso’s opener towards Germany was Paraguay’s first-ever purpose within the knockout stage of the finals, having failed to attain of their 5 earlier such ties
