France are through to the World Cup quarter-finals after a 1-0 win over Paraguay, with Kylian Mbappé scoring the decisive penalty following a VAR review. The result sets up a meeting with Morocco at Boston Stadium on Thursday.
The match turned with around 20 minutes remaining, when Diego Gomez was judged to have fouled Desire Doue after referee Ilgiz Tantashev checked the pitchside monitor. Mbappé converted for his seventh goal of the tournament and his 19th in World Cup play overall.
Much of the post-match focus fell on Paraguay’s physical approach and the referee’s handling of it. The source report listed several flashpoints involving France players including Adrien Rabiot, Dayot Upamecano and Mbappé, while noting that Paraguay finished without a yellow card despite three cautions for France.
The conditions added another layer to the contest, with the kick-off temperature cited at 38.3°C. For France, the narrow win offered a different test from their earlier performances: less fluent, more confrontational, but still enough to keep their title ambitions alive pending a tougher quarter-final against Morocco.
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