Les Bleus are favourites to win the World Cup and were expected to do what Germany failed to do, beat Paraguay. But they were made to work very hard for their victory.

France were up against a Paraguay team very happy to sit back and soak up the pressure, looking to take all momentum and energy out of the game. It was a gameplan that worked against Germany, and was doing the trick in this clash. They had just five shots across the 90 minutes, with only one (in the 90th minute) hitting the target. At the other end of the pitch, Paraguay restricted France to five efforts on target, from 15 in total. Again, the numbers were inflated in the dying stages.

The crucial moment came in the 70th minute, when Desire Doue was brought down in the box. The referee did not award anything initially, but VAR recommended a review and, eventually, the penalty was given. Kylian Mbappe stepped up and sent the goalkeeper the wrong way, scoring his seventh goal of the World Cup.

Even after going behind, Paraguay didn’t offer much by way of trying to get back into the game. So, France controlled the final precedings to set up a quarter-final clash against Morocco on Thursday 9th July.

Paraguay vs France result, highlights & stats

Paraguay vs France highlights

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