Philadelphia: Kylian Mbappé laughed and smiled — and scored, of course — when Paraguay tried to bait him and his French teammates into fouls and provoke fights, as hot heads became a recurring theme during one of the steamiest World Cup games on record.
After the final whistle, Mbappé kept on walking and left Paraguayan goalkeeper Orlando Gill hanging as Gill extended his right hand in a show of sportsmanship.
In response, Gill thew the ball right at the No. 10 on Mbappé’s jersey.
Mbappé got the last laugh as he scored his 19th career World Cup goal, and France survived stifling heat to beat Paraguay 1-0 on Saturday, sending Les Bleus into the quarterfinals for the fourth straight time.
“We knew what kind of match it was going to be,” Mbappé said in French. “We can also get our hands dirty, we know how to do it. We know how to play ugly football. Guess they were thinking we were going to show up in tuxedos, but we were ready.”
France advanced to play Morocco on Thursday in Foxborough, Massachusetts. France beat Morocco 2-0 in the semifinals of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
With an extreme heat warning in effect throughout the match as temperatures hovered around 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius), Mbappé finally broke through against a physical, defensive-minded Paraguay side when he converted a penalty kick in the 70th minute.
That was enough for Les Bleus, whose red, white and blue-clad fans looked plenty patriotic on July Fourth in the city where the United States was founded exactly 250 years earlier.
Mbappé was awarded the penalty when Diego Gomez was called for tripping after a video review. Then he stutter-stepped on his way to his 19th goal in 19 World Cup appearances, one behind career record holder Lionel Messi of Argentina. Mbappé and Messi each have seven goals in this tournament to top the Golden Boot race.
Mbappé won that award four years ago, but Messi and Argentina beat France in the final.
Mbappé — who frequently trash-talked the Paraguayans in Spanish — is now the only player to score at least three goals in the knockout stage of three World Cups.
Mbappé botched a breakaway attempt in the second half, and Manu Koné had his top-corner shot knocked away by Gill after he was wiped out in the netting by Ousmane Dembélé only moments earlier.
Gill also stopped two strong attempts by Mbappé in second-half stoppage time.
The 26-year-old Gill had bested German great Manuel Neuer in a penalty shootout in the previous round. He then lost his cool after the loss to France when he chucked the ball at Mbappé.
“I tried to shake his hand, but since he didn’t pay me any attention, I lost my temper,” Gill said. “But anyway, that was all I did; I calmed down afterward.”
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.
“Given our style of play, it was harder to give high intensity,” France coach Didier Deschamps said.
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.
Maybe they were looking for some action of any kind.
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.
Paraguay advanced by beating Germany in a penalty shootout on Monday, the biggest upset of this World Cup. But after a gritty effort by La Albirroja, it’s France that’s moving on.
After defeating Croatia for the 2018 title, France lost to Argentina on penalty kicks in the 2022 final. Les Bleus are 5-0 in this year’s tournament, outscoring opponents 14-2.
“As I said to the players, we’ve had easy games so far, so it is good to have a tough one,” Deschamps said.
The city soaked in the moment as the 250th anniversary of American independence was celebrated. More fans honored America — draped in flags or wearing Uncle Sam hats as they tailgated in the parking lot — than at any of the other games in Philadelphia, and Idina Menzel, The Roots and DJ Jazzy Jeff all performed.
